Digit 2005-04 - Clevernotions.com

news
Macromedia to
boost Flash video
Akamai and Macromedia are teaming to
give end users a quick, secure way to speed
the delivery of Flash video to desktops. The
companies have announced the immediate
availability of Akamai Streaming for use
with Macromedia Flash. Executives say the
service will eliminate the need to deploy
video on-demand applications across
multiple browsers and platforms because
users will be able to instantly view video
using Flash Player. Content providers
upload media such as movies to Akamai's
EdgePlatform, where it is stored and
delivered on demand. Pricing depends
on use.
Tabbies Awards
to hail magazines
English-language business-to-business
magazines worldwide have been invited to
enter the 2005 Tabbie awards – the second
annual editorial and design awards for the
global event. Past winners included Forbes
and Tobacco Reporter.
Categories in the Tabbies’ design division
include best front cover, best use of digital
imagery; best front cover illustration; best
use of a photographic front cover; best front
cover of a special issue; best opening page
or spread; and best-designed table of
contents. Deadline is March 23, 2005.
Judges in 2004 included Jeremy Leslie,
creative director at John Brown Citrus
Publishing, and editors from leading
trade publications.
Tabbies, www.tabpi.org
Smackdown
art winner
Over 56,000 creative
professionals visited
www.studiosmack
down.com last
month to determine
the outcome of
Aquent’s unique
online design
competition, Studio
Smackdown. The
contest pitted five
graphic designers
against each other
to wrestle for art
dominance. Toni
Greaves won.
Moonfish
set to Wade
Moonfish, one of
the top 20 UK digital
marketing agencies
with clients such as
Intel, has promoted
Chris Wade (below)
to the position of
head of technical
services. Chris will
oversee all aspects
of Moonfish’s
technical offering
as well as managing
the company’s
technical team.
www.moonfish.com
“I quit – this
place stinks”
A survey of over 250
advertising agencies
have revealed a list
of unusual reasons
as to why staff quit.
Some responses
included: the fact
the job wasn’t as
glamorous as the
staffer thought; the
building being too
smelly; and being
paid too much. One
person admitted he
simply couldn’t get
up in the morning.
WipEout designer
on mobile gaming
W
ith the release of the PSP looming,
companies have been pushing to
finish games in time for its release.
We recently had a chance to talk with Colin
Berry, designer for WipEout Pure on the PSP.
Digit How different is it to design a game
on a PSP compared to PS2?
Colin Berry With WipEout Pure, we
have not had to adjust too much from the
point of view of short bursts of gameplay.
If people want to load-up WipEout Pure
and play for only 5 or 10 minutes then there
is always going to be something there for
them to play. One aspect of design we
had to address with the PSP was that it
has a few less buttons than a PS2 controller.
So, from a design perspective we had to
be clever in working out what controls
we wanted and how to map them to
the available buttons. We haven’t been
prevented from putting anything into the
game… and we have actually benefited
from the PSP and made use of its features
such as Wi-Fi, which has enabled us to
[offer] downloadable content.
Digit Do you have to make compromises
to graphics to extend battery life?
Colin Berry The number of polygons you’re
pushing doesn’t directly affect the battery
life. The battery life is affected by the clock
frequency of the CPU and GPU. However,
reducing these wasn’t really an option,
as it would slow the framerate down.
Digit How difficult is it to develop on the
PSP compared to the PS2?
Colin Berry A lot easier. The PS2 is a
challenge and returns dividends when used
correctly, but it does take a while to master.
The PSP is far easier and comes with
excellent libraries.
Digit What about development time?
Colin Berry Initially, for WipEout Pure we
thought we would have a smaller team than
we did for WipEout Fusion, but in the end
the team size for Pure has grown to about
the same as it was for Fusion, although its
only been in the second half of the project
that the size of the team has doubled to end
up just over 20. A smaller machine doesn’t
mean a smaller game, so all the content still
needs to be created. I guess if people are
simply porting an old PS2 game over then
they may well have a smaller team size than
they would for a PS2 game. However, we are
not doing a port, the whole game is new.
Time wise WipEout Pure has taken a little
over a year.
Digit What are some of the inspirations
behind WipEout on PSP
Colin Berry For the most part the
inspiration came from the previous versions
of WipEout and the reactions both positive
and negative to various iterations, and the
desire to produce the best version of the
series to date. A little inspiration was taken
from F-Zero on the GameCube, the original
Mario Kart on the Super NES and probably
on a subconscious level several other racing
titles. However the main inspiration has
always been the previous WipEout games
and WipEout 2097 in particular.