Simon Oliver shares his Lessons for Independent Developers at BAF Game

Blogger: Emma James, Web Content Coordinator

Simon Oliver is the founder of Hand Circus, creators of the hit Rolando series of games for the iPhone and Okabu on the Playstation 3. He was at BAF Game to advise anyone who wants to get into independent games development.



Simon spoke about the history of indie, entwined with a bit of personal history.

The first computer he used was programmable, at a time when there was no divide between the people who created the games, and the machines they were created on. The government encouraged computer literacy, and for schools to teach ICT at a deeper level - not just Microsoft Word, but the basics of computer science.

When games consoles were released they were just machines for consumption. There was no concept of open source, which was a huge barrier to entry.

The release of the iPhone was a key moment for Simon, who wanted to grasp the opportunities and meet the challenges presented by this new gaming platform. And so, Hand Circus was born.

Simon is obviously concerned about the future of independent games development, given the expectation that games will deliver hyper real experiences which simply can't be created by a small team.

However, he cites David Braben's Rapberry Pi, which will teach children the building blocks of computer science and Codea (formerly Codify), which lets you create games on the iPad using a simple, easy to learn coding language, as two developments of the kind that Simon is really excited about.



The vast number of tools on the market gives developers freedom through access to these technologies. Unity stands out for Simon; it gives you a very sophisticated tool set, without which Hand Circus would not be able to create their games.

Freedom is a concept that Simon keeps on repeating...

• The lure of independent development is freedom
• Freedom through technology
• Freedom to work differently
• Freedom of expression
• Freedom to meander

Is this why people are moving away from the AAA console space?

For Simon, this is the best work ever, and that's his message for today. It's the most challenging, and the level of personal involvement can make it an emotional experience, but Simon has some advice from fellow indie developers to help you along the way, which you can read about on his blog.

Or, to listen to the full presentation, here's the podcast which you're free to download and share.

Adrian Hon from Six to Start on Storytelling at BAF Game

Blogger: Emma James, Web Content Coordinator

Why do stories in games suck?!

Adrian Hon is obviously not a man who beats around the bush, and I was intrigued by this frank presentation about the games industry's general inability to deliver an immersive experience when it comes to storytelling.



Adrian knows it can be done. He cites two of his favourites The Longest Story, and the Portal series, which tells its stories using the environment rather than time wasting cut scenes.

An opposite example is Grand Theft Auto IV. Though technically brilliant, it left Adrian deflated upon discovering that the story was not "amazing", as he'd heard it would be. Instead, it's just hotchpotch of stereotyped characters with clichéd dialogue.

Despite this failure, GTA IV received brilliant reviews, so the lesson here is that games with bad stories still sell. We don't care enough about bad stories to not buy the game, so we get the stories in games that we deserve. Fair enough!

Adrian asks why gamers looking for good stories are left wanting.

One of the answers is the element of interactivity; games aren't one way like other forms of media. Some gamers believe that the worst thing about a game with a story is that it tells you what to do. Real games should be like Sims, Minecraft and their ilk; having the ability to pretty much what you want is better than the story any writer can create.

Being a writer of Civilization fan fiction, Adrian sympathizes with this perspective.

Games which allow you to build your own story are no better or worse than those with a linear story, they're just different, and people want different things from their gaming experience.



So, if we know how, why don't good stories in games occur more often? Adrian believes that's a result of four factors: risk, distribution, funding and tools.

Publishers don't seem to take a lot of creative risks. If you treat video games as simply a way to make money, then that's fine. But that's not what you do it for, right?

We've witnessed a huge amount of change in the way people find, buy and play games - Steam, Facebook, Android, iOS to name a few - which empowers people to put their games in front of an audience without permission from anyone. This of course means you end up with a lot of crap, but conversely, you can discover some fantastic games that no publisher would have wanted to risk.

Developers are going to need money, and their sponsor is going to demand some level of input. These days, a lot of independent developers are going direct to the public. Six to Start successfully used Kickstarter to fund Zomies, Run! (which looks like a very entertaining way to keep fit.)

Adrian also mentioned IndieGoGo, and one member of the audience recommended Sponsume. Do you know of any good crowdsource funding organisations?

Adrian's final reason for the lameness of storytelling in games is that the writer is brought in too late. We need to give developers and writers better tools which will enable them to work on the creative process rather than the technology.

Why should we care? Because stories are important as both a form of entertainment, and a way of learning about the world.

If you want to listen to the full presentation, which includes the question and answer session, here's the podcast.



Adrian has kindly shared his slides from the presentation, which you can find on Slideshare.

New Stories for New Platforms

The National Media Museum Breaks a World Record

On Wednesday we broke the World Record for the number of people playing Nintendo DS games simultaneously in the same place for 10 minutes. The record was previously held by the MCM Expo in London with 586 DS players. We beat their record with an impressive 659 gamers. Here's the video to prove it.

We opened the doors for registration at 10.00 and saw hundreds of people flock to the Museum throughout the day to enjoy a barbeque, have their face painted, try their hand at big screen gaming in our cinema, join in with family events, and watch Toy Story 3D in our IMAX theatre. But most importantly, they were there to sign up for the World Record attempt that evening.

We were joined by Real Radio who pumped out the latest chart hits from the balcony above the Media Wall. Presenter Dixie was our compère for the day, and he did a grand job of rallying up the crowd and telling them where to go and when to be there.

Super Mario himself arrived at around 15.00 to the delight of all the kids who converged upon the Nintendo icon for hugs and photographs as soon as they caught sight of him.

We also welcomed some of the Bradford Bulls and local PCSOs to help us supervise the event, Bulls' Chief Executive Ryan Ducket and gaming guru Charles Cecil who were official invigilators, and Gaz Deaves, Gaming Editor of Guinness World Records, who was there to make sure everything was above board, and of course, to present us with our certificate when we claimed victory.

It was fantastic to see so many people come down to the Museum to be part of the attempt - so many that they spilled out to the front of the building - but that's not to say it was easy to pull together. Our event coordinators Kat Martin, Elaine Richmond and Sophie Choudry certainly had one or two sleepless nights in the run up to the event, but I daresay they would agree that it was all worth it in the end.

Sarah Mumford, Learning Manager, who originally conceived the idea describes the moment of truth:

"The atmosphere was electric and the excitement was palpable. We didn’t know 'til immediately after the attempt whether we had broken the record or not and when the man from Guinness announced we had broken it everyone cheered. And what a relief that was!"

I was stood in the crowd when Gaz announced that we had broken the record, and it certainly was exciting - I don't know what we would have done had we not taken the record, but no doubt everyone would have held their consoles in the air to celebrate a good try.

When it was all over, the proud participants collected a badge and certificate, but some remained for the Street Fighter 2 tournament in our Games Lounge. I had escaped back to the office to upload my photographs so I missed it, but I asked organiser Foz Bano for a quick report:

"The [tournament] went really well with 32 players competing and Tom (Woolley - New Media Curator) got Mario to join in! It was a tightly fought contest and over the course of an hour 31 games were played. All ages got involved and Gaz Deaves from Guinness got through to the semi final but was beaten by Dhaood who went on to win."

Congratulations, Dhaood - and well done to everyone who came down on the day to support or take part in the World Record attem... no, VICTORY!

If you want to see Tom's video of Mario playing in the Street Fighter 2 tournament, I've selected it as a favourite on our YouTube channel.

Photographs from the day can be found on our Flickr channel, and you can upload your photographs to our DS World Record Breakers group.

Don't forget to check out our programme of Summer Fun, and if you would like to receive news about events, films and the latest IMAX blockbusters, sign up to our e-newsletter online.