Well my week at the Game Developer’s Conference is more than half over and I’m already reeling from the experience.  It’s been intense to say the least and I can see why people do this every year, I could do this three times and not see the same things even if industry events didn’t change with the intervening year.  It’s been exhausting running from keynotes to lectures and tutorials but also a priceless experience.  I’ve gotten to ask Brad Wardell from Stardock questions about independent game development.  I’ve heard Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, discuss Miamoto’s techniques for game design.  I’ve also networked with PR people, game designers, publishers and other industry professionals from all over the world.

Today I also managed to catch a lecture about Windows 7 as it relates to game designers and publishers.  They discussed some of the changes they are making to the Games Explorer as part of the new operating system and some of what we can expect from DirectX 11.  Having tried the Windows 7 Beta on one of our workstations I think it will turn out to be the best PC operating system yet for supporting video games but only time will tell.

So I’m off to review tomorrow’s schedule and decide what I’ll be doing.  I know I want to visit more of the expos to see what other companies I can meet and spread word about our titles.  Beyond that, I’ll try and learn a few new things while I’m here.

Despite a lapse in writing blogs, development does continue here are BattleGoat Studios. But this month is a little different, this month Daxon and I are preparing for a trip to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. The conference runs from March 23nd to the 27th and will be a chance for us to see other industry professionals and listen to all sorts of presentations. It should be a very interesting trip.

In preparation for the trip, last night we attended a Meet and Greet hosted by the OMDC who will be assisting Ontario companies maintain a presence at the show. I got to meet Doug from Frozen North Productions who told me about a very interesting Wii title they are working on. They will be doing a presentation at GDC and I mean to catch it to see public reaction. I also had an interesting discussion with Julian, Nathan and Ryan about IPhone apps. Ann told me about her work at Decode Entertainment which caught my attention since their television division makes the kids CBC shows Animal Mechanicals and Bo on the Go, two of my sons favorite shows.  Decode’s interactive division will be make PC games for some of their intellectual property and based on their shows I predict some very good software. Overall a very interesting evening.

I’m also glad I attended because this is really getting me into the right mindset for the trip. This will be the first big conference I’m attending so I’m not entierly sure what to expect. So a big thanks to Kim and her team at the OMDC for hosting this meet and greet, I look forward to seeing everyone in San Francisco and getting to meet all sorts of interesting people.

A recent post on the Paradox forum has had me scratching my head since yesterday. The user suggested our game wasn’t what he wanted since we don’t model a “present day real world”. This user felt that Supreme Ruler 2010 was a weird fantasy game because of a broken United States and a story of civil wars around the world. While the plausibility of the 2010 storyline could be defended as we watch oil break 112$ per barrel and the US teeter on the brink of a recession, it is true that it is a creative storyline that thankfully has not come true. With deadlines looming ahead of us I took the simple approach of offering that we believed there was plenty of audience for a “near future” game and that community mods might still create the scenario the player is looking for. Since yesterday it has occurred to me that I am selling the user - and our game - short.

Many of my comments on the forum still stand. The idea of trying to model a true “current day” map makes my head hurt just to consider the logistics. There are so many factors that simply cannot be modeled mathematically and so much development time would be taken away from features and AI to spend time working on accuracy and corrections of obscure data. But Supreme Ruler 2010 did make an attempt at a version of a close to present day map. While it did come after release, one of our late updates added a scenario to the game called World War III. While I don’t recall the start date, it was an attempt to give the players a World map in which they could play the major players in the world such as Germany, France, Russia, China or the US with some semblance to their real situations. The limitation of the engine did mean we had to create fictional amalgamations such as giving Cuba to the US and merging most South American countries but it did still offer a more realistic map than the game storyline. Of course I have a soft spot for that scenario since it was essentially a mod I made.

Even after development for 2010 had ended, I began to see flaws in the WWIII scenario. The concepts we began putting forward for Supreme Ruler 2020 were going to lead to a much better map balance than the original had been capable of and I got inspired to do further work on the side. A World War IV (for lack of a better name) version got released as a mod with a retouched economy and lower overall military build capacity. It was sort of a last kick at the can since the things I really wanted to see modeled would require real borders of real countries, more than the 32 player limit of Supreme Ruler 2010.

This is where much of the excitement over Supreme Ruler 2020 comes from for me personally. When George told us that yes, the engine would be able to support over 200 regions in a scenario, I immediately knew what I wanted to play – Canada on the world stage. Move over Mr. Harper!

Granted, the Scenario “World2020” may start a few years out, and we may not have as much coal mined in Poland as is mined today but we’ve not gone crazy with mass changes. Some military equipment has been retired, some new stuff added, a few construction projects planned for the next few years are completed in some countries but if you choose to play as Norway you can expect to be focusing on Petroleum production and Mexico is a good source for low cost Industrial and Consumer Goods. But I’d still suggest people give “Shattered World” a spin, it’s fun to watch Texas invade Oklahoma…

To see the thread that inspired this blog;
Paradox Forums

Chris Latour
BattleGoat Studios
chris@battlegoat.com

dealer’s cost price vehicle incentive test

This morning was a bit of a lazy morning for me. I was at my desk at about the usual time but things in the office were quiet and I did e-mails and forum work as I said goodbye to the long weekend. Yesterday was a holiday here in Canada so this is a short week for us. Last Tuesday was nothing like this…

The last few weeks we’ve been working hard to move things forward with the game. This week is the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco and we’ll be showing off a development version of the game to the press. David and George will be schmoozing with various industry people and talking about our project. But to this end we had a long list of tasks for each of us to accomplish before for the show. Amazingly I think we achieved most of what we intended despite what was likely an overly ambitious list. Last week in particular was a mad rush, but I think most projects go through that sort of thing. And of course the payoff for the work from last week is that this week there is lots more in the game.

As of this week we are able to run time at any of 6 speed settings, diplomatic trading with regions works, players receive e-mail and news, units build and deploy, combat occurs when opposing nations go to war and ministers work at keeping the country running smoothly. These are just some of the features now working in the game. Many of the features from Supreme Ruler 2010 have returned and there are plenty of new additions as well. Diplomacy now offers control over expiry time of diplomatic offers, the State department lists religions of a selected region vs. your own region and production has lists of the largest buyers and sellers of each commodity to easily locate potential trading partners.

Further work has also been done to improve the look of the user interface. Our Graphic Artist is working hard at replacing our temporary images with new ones that properly convey the idea that each button represents and we’re close to a hundred 3D models made with more on the way. We’re also starting some of the clean up stages to make sure all text is well centered, using the same colors and style and that similar areas have a similar appearance. Some of it is tedious, but it’s an important part of having a professional look on the project.

So this week is going to be a little less crazy as we catch up on the forums, e-mails and marketing work we’ve neglected over the last few weeks. We might even keep ourselves to only 40 hours of work this week, it is a short week after all…

Chris Latour
BattleGoat Studios
chris@battlegoat.com

Lots of things going on here at BattleGoat, it may seem a bit silent but we’ve been busy behind the scenes!

With the release of Supreme Ruler 2020 getting closer, we’ve started releasing more screenshots, 3D model renders and concept artwork - be sure to check out our website and the forum for the latest.  The push is on to finalize our User Interface, which is a complete redesign from SR2010.  Less use of screen-blocking popups, larger fonts, more tooltips, and a streamlining of how the interface works were just a few of our ‘to-do’s for the new UI.  I don’t expect everyone to like everything we’ve done, but overall it’s been turning out well, and I think it will make the game a bit more accessible to new players.

In other development areas, testing has so far revealed good performance, something that was a possible issue with the much larger world / map sizes that we now support, combined with the move to full 3D graphics.  The RAM requirements will be up considerably from SR2010, with our requirement being 512 MB of RAM minimum - but hey, RAM is cheap, go out and buy some!

Overall Supreme Ruler 2020 is looking great, and we’ll be sharing a lot more details with you all in the coming weeks.

I would also like to take this opportunity to wish everyone out there the best for the New Year, and thank you all for your continued support.

– George Geczy, Lead Programmer, BattleGoat Studios

Game development is certainly an interesting profession.  You can often move quickly between one task that is logic oriented to another that is purely creative.  When George works on programming an AI rule or an economic formula, he uses precise equations and tracks values.  In contrast when I work on map terrain or our 3D modeler designs a new building, it is all very creative.  I’ve also found, from my own experience, that we often become attached to these creative works even thinking of them as our children.  I know that is much how I see all the units I created for Supreme Ruler 2010.  This made some of our changes for Supreme Ruler 2020 somewhat bitter-sweet.

Now don’t get me wrong, the improved visuals and feel of our nice tilted 3D map are great and initial tests actually seem to show performance improvements over the old engine but I knew right away that our units from 2010 would need to be redone.  In the first game we used renders (a 2D flat picture of a 3D object) as opposed to 3D objects in game which meant when designing them there was no limit on the number of polygons I could use.  If adding a pair of antenna on the tank made it look nicer, who cared about the extra 40 polygons?  We also did not need to use detailed textures on all objects, a time saving trick, some just used simple colors.  The problem in a 3D environment is that each additional polygon adds to the time the computer must spend drawing the object, something it does quite often.  Textures can create many of the more detailed features but they take time to create.  Since my abilities at 3D modeling are limited, these become a task for our graphic artist Stephane.  However, we are currently setting aggressive timelines for ourselves and we will also need Stephane to work on other game graphics and objects so the total number of models we will be able to generate in the development schedule is limited.  I’ve had to make some cuts…

So how do we cut back on the number of units?  A tank needs to look like a tank and I can’t exactly use the Humvee model for a M2 Bradley tracked vehicle.  It’s taken some time but we have managed to at least set an order of development.  We’ve managed to identify some critical models such as V-22 Osprey, A-10 and B-2, things that really are unique in their look and therefore must be included.  We’ve also decided on some “class leader” models, meaning that a Leclerc tank model can be secondary so long as we have a Leopard tank to use.  We’re making sure that for every given function there is a unique model.  This is the groundwork for a good game look that also improves gameplay.  After all, I may be well versed on the differences between the Swedish Viggen and the French Mirage, but this is not exactly a game critical difference.

This has also been a change we’ve scrutinized very closely.  We’ve now got about 20 models completed in the new series and have had some time to work with them.  The first question had to be is it worth it.  In this we’re still very confident that we’re making a shift for quality over quantity.  And even at that, we’re still looking at a minimum of 100 unique models in the game.  We also are looking towards what can be accomplished post-release.  To take my above example, when Supreme Ruler 2010 was released, the Viggen used the Mirage model.  It wasn’t until one of our later updates that we were able to add a new unique model for that design.  This sort of thing will still be very easy for us to do, adding a few additional models along with the updates.

So I’m left to mourn a few of my “children”, but this really seems to be the sort of thing that is defining the development of a sequel in our studio; some elements that we may have over indulged in for the first version, some models never even got used, have to be lean and trim in this version so that we devote our resources to developing all areas of the game to their full potential.  As I said, always an interesting job.

Chris Latour
BattleGoat Studios
chris@battlegoat.com

It’s time for us to come clean.  For a few years now we’ve danced around the issue of some players seeing white blocks instead of unit and pictures on map, without really saying what was going on.  Well, we’re finally ready to reveal what many had already deduced – the white blocks only appear in counterfeit or pirate copies of the game.  This was one of our anti-piracy tools and we are generally happy with the results.  We’ve always been of the mindset that we want to discourage piracy, both of our game and in the industry as a whole, but we don’t believe our attempts should inconvenience legitimate players in any way.  The system we used here meant that the only players who encountered this were those who also had the pirate version of the game.  What has reopened this issue is that as we progress through the development of Supreme Ruler 2020, we find ourselves back to the question of how much protection should be used for this new title?

The question of how to deal with software piracy has been debated for decades and has inspired some innovative tools in that time.  Anyone who has been in computers as long as we have will likely remember the rotating paper disks that SSI included in some of their RPG games.  Players had to match two symbols on the disk to reveal an access code in order to launch the game. Later we were introduced to CD-keys and product activations and more recently some studios have turned to solutions such as Starforce or Securom, much more invasive and potentially frustrating to legitimate end users.  The recent controversy surrounding Bioshock’s activation system brings into question if a game company loses legitimate sales for adopting such invasive methods.  While these tools each have their supporters, and we in fact used a CD key amongst our tools, many feel that none of these really affect the total rate of game piracy.  I’ve heard the comment before and find little reason not to believe that the best deterrent of piracy is to make the game easily available for purchase at a reasonable price.  Most gamers want original copies of the games they enjoy.  Many of the players I spoke to who had pirate copies indicated that they lived in a country where the game was not available through retail channels.  And many of them that I directed to a digital download source even came back asking for a way to get a boxed copy.

So in many ways our first step in countering piracy has been our recent signing with Paradox Interactive for publication.  Our dealings with them leave us confident that when we present them with a Gold Master of our new title, they will have both the knowledge and knowhow to bring our game to the market with a focus on visibility and availability.  We will certainly employ some tools to combat piracy as it is our intention to only provide support to those who purchase the game, but it remains our policy to use techniques that are virtually invisible to legitimate users and only cause problems for counterfeit versions.

Chris Latour
BattleGoat Studios
chris@battlegoat.com

I just got back last week from Germany, where I attended the Leipzig ‘Game Convention’ (GC). This year the show combined three elements – a Developers Conference, a Trade/Press day, and an open-to-all gaming show. BattleGoat participated in the Trade/Press day, though one of our reasons for attending the show was removed when we ended up signing the worldwide publishing and distribution deal with Paradox right before I left. Did still get the chance to discuss Supreme Ruler with lots of interested folks, as well as getting the chance to tour the five halls of gaming propaganda.

The Developers Conference was interesting – not nearly the size or scope of GDC in San Francisco, but it had the usual sprinkling of industry veterans, upcoming independents, and sessions on a range of topics. And the food was good. Apparently about 800 attendees.

The Trade/Press day was a bit dull from a BattleGoat perspective, since we didn’t really have anything to try to sell to publishers or distributors. A bit of interest from various smaller regional distributors in repackaging SR2010 as a discount title, I suppose it’s something we should consider when we regain all the worldwide rights next year.

The open section of the show was like an attack by hordes of teenage zombies – well maybe the zombie part isn’t accurate, but according to GC reports, 53% of attendees were under 21. (Apparently 93.1% of attendees were in age brackets younger than I am.) So clearly Strategy/Simulation/Wargames were not the genre of choice. Instead, singing/dancing/acting strange was a popular theme. ‘Singstar’, a karaoke/competition game by Sony for the PS3, was quite popular. As usual, a lot of attention went to console titles – all three consoles were heavily represented.

The PC was not entirely forgotten – a few titles such as Sierra’s upcoming World in Conflict got a fair bit of visibility, but most PC stuff received little notice. For example, the upcoming Empire Earth III received virtually no signage, and the systems showing off the beta version of it were generally ignored. Likely the most floor space for PC titles was given by hardware-oriented companies – Intel, AMD, motherboard maker ASUS, and others were present to keep the faith. Even Microsoft’s ‘Games for Windows’ brand seemed to have a very subdued presence.

So if you don’t see coverage of Supreme Ruler 2020 from the gaming press present at Leipzig, it wasn’t due to lack of our attendance – though it’s true that we were only in the ‘trade/press’ area of the show, not the public (teenager-strewn) sections. Possibly if we were making Supreme Karaoke Elven Ninja Skateboard Ruler for the Wii we’d see a lot of press…

To get an abbreviated feel of what the show was like, pretend you were in the crowd of 185,000 primarily male, primarily teen game fans and check out my short picture collection at www.battlegoat.com/leipzig2007

- George Geczy, Lead Programmer, BattleGoat Studios.

SR2020 will now include real world region flags.   In Supreme Ruler 2010 the flags in-game were coloured to reflect the regions’ border colour.  This time we thought it would add some graphic appeal to include real country flags.  While researching flags for each country and in some cases each sub-country, such as provinces or states, I came across the term vexillology - or the “study of flags”.  To learn a bit more here is a link… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vexillology.  I found it interesting how some areas of the world have very similar flag designs.  I also noticed that most country flags were far more basic in design, while state flags had more detail which is easily lost when viewing at a scaled down size.   Some countries don’t have an offical flag at the moment so we are hoping they pick one before we release.  Do you know which country that is?

In some cases I’ve had to become a vexillographer myself and design a few new flags.  One area this can easily been noticed is with several of our “blocked” regions.  While our game has approximately 255 regions we decided to group regions together to allow a way to manage them for missions, sandbox and scenario gameplay.  In some cases we’ve used an exisiting country flag for a block and in other cases we’ve had to become creative.  We hope you will enjoy this addition to SR2020.

— Daxon

It’s always nice to get your hands on new software, and I’ve discovered that new versions of old software can be just as satisfying.   When I got our new mapeditor a couple weeks ago I was really excited about working with it.  While much of the mapediting is boring and tedious there are some aspects that are really interesting.  In particular this mapeditor version supports our new system of facilities as components within a hex.   We’re still looking for the proper terminology but for now we’re calling the two elements components and containers.

The system works by classifying elements in a hex into containers.  There are three types of containers; cities, industrial sectors and military installations.  Elements on map are built inside one of these containers which have room for up to six components.  The concept is to centralize map elements so that common elements are more closely associated creating less hexes to keep track of when managing your country.  The design is also intended to create less map clutter than the old system of one hex, one facility.

Most of the components that are built in the containers will be familiar to any Supreme Ruler players.  We still have airstrips, research centers, power plants and other such elements although the military installations work differently than our old “bases” system.  A small base previously capable of storing reserves and building three units at a time would now be a military installation container with a barracks component for storing reserves and three Land Fabrication components, each one capable of building one unit.  All fabrication plants are one component, one build slot, and provide no reserves storage capacity.   Barracks store land reserves, Airstrips now store air reserves and Piers store your naval reserves.  To upgrade an installation, you would simply build an additional component (assuming there are unused positions).  The fabrication components cannot be built without a reserve component preplaced but we avoid micromanaging this by queuing elements for the player.  If you attempted to place a new Aircraft Fabrication component in an undeveloped hex, a new military container would begin construction and inside would be queued first an Airstrip component, then the Air Fabrication component.  Each would build in sequence.  When completed, a second Aircraft Fabrication component could be added without having to pay the cost or wait the time for the Military Installation and Airstrip to be built.  The foundation cost of the containers also encourages strategic placement of components on the part of the player and reduces the “base farming” effect possible in the previous game.

There are other advantages to this new system, most notably that barracks, piers and airports can be added to cities.  This allows for reserves to be stored in key areas without requiring a full military base with unit production.   A limitation in the previous system was that if a region should not have the production capacity for more one military unit at a time, we could give them no more than one base.  With the new system we can also create a sequence of buildings such as requiring a player to have a Security Perimeter component before then can build a Missile Silo somponent.  Another notable addition is a Missile Fabrication component, allowing us to give regions missile production capacity without needing an airbase.

There are of course limits applied to this new system, you won’t find a barracks in an industrial sector or a farm in a city.  There are certain restrictions on what containers each component can exist in and even a few special components that actually exist without a container, but some of these details are still being fine tuned.  For the moment at least I have clear rules and information on military components and have already placed unit storage and fabrication components in Europe, Africa and the Middle East on the new map.

Chris Latour
BattleGoat Studios
chris@battlegoat.com