Demiurge Studios - Blog

Double Time Postmortem

2008-09-30T11:10:00.002-04:00

Wondering what this Brothers in Arms: Double Time business is about? Want an insight into how Demiurge Studios makes games? Have a thirst for developer-written wrap-ups about games? Well, you're in luck! Demiurge's postmortem on Double Time is up on Gamasutra.

I've enjoyed the postmortems on Gamasutra -- this one no less than the others.

Brothers in Arms: Double Time out now

2008-09-26T11:26:00.007-04:00

The Demiurge-made Brothers in Arms: Double Time for the Wii is now out in stores!

If you have a Wii and/or like shooters you should play it (the game, not the photo).

Mr. Twirly Beams

2008-09-19T16:41:00.003-04:00

It warms my heart to see some of the world’s top scientists turning to video game culture to find a more snuggly, recognizable name for their otherwise unfamiliar and frightening black hole machine. Despite the Halo rings in the game ironically being able to destroy life in the galaxy, this led me to thinking what other applications this PR tactic could be used in order to quell the masses.

~~The Internal Revenue Service~~: Tax Hero
~~Murphy’s Funeral Home~~: WWE Undertaker
~~Blackwater Defense Contracting~~: Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back

Penny Arcade Expo 2008 Impressions

2008-09-12T11:18:00.010-04:00

I know PAX has been over for two weeks now. But I'm just now recovering enough for all my impressions to crystallize into coherent thought. A big part of PAX for me is seeing old college buddies -- which made the wait in any lines much more palatable as we caught up with each other or played games of of BANG! The clearest and best memories of the weekend include:

The random, fleeting glimpses of dude-Peach
Exchanging three words with the ephemeral apparition of Jerry Holkins
The juxtaposition of the Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead booths being right next to each other. Both shooters, both looking barrels-of-monkeys amounts of fun, and each totally different from the other.
The sea of waving DSes and cellphones during the Freezepop concert. (And I wonder how many other people fly across the country to see a band based where they live.)
Being Rickrolled by Jonathan Coulton during his concert
My traditional Seattle breakfast of Daily Dozen doughnuts
Playing some Boom Blox when we had a spare hour
Flying home at midnight, wishing PAX didn't have to end
Learning that I can look forward to Boston PAX in two years

Teraminx

2008-09-04T19:55:00.004-04:00

At one point or another whether you're an artist, an engineer, or the office manager at a game company you decide to design a game of your own. Drew, one of Demiurge's artists took up the hobby of designing some crazy Rubiks-Cube style puzzles. Frankly, we all thought it was a pretty peculiar hobby.

His first work is up on EBay. If you've got a spare TWO THOUSAND AMERICAN DOLLARS burning a hole in your pocket, it could be yours. Go Drew!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESCX:IT&item=320291360820

Bring Down the Sky Available

2008-07-30T10:01:00.003-04:00

The downloadable content "Bring Down the Sky" for the PC version of Mass Effect is now available. You should go download it and play it. Did I mention that it's free? More importantly, it's fun.

Dr. Horrible

2008-07-18T10:43:00.002-04:00

Everyone may have already seen this, but then everyone should just watch it again: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It's like a combination of Jonathan Coulton, the musical epsode of Buffy, and Doogie Howser. Though I guess the last two of those list are rather obvious connections.

It's also just exciting to see this sort of high quality, independently developed entertainment hit the web. Demonstrating that a talented content creator can reach an audience without the need for an expensive media blitz, and that even folks who have met with success in the Hollywood system are open to new way finance their creative output -- well, I don't see how that can be anything but good for consumers and for the video game industry.

Played Podcast

2008-06-05T12:03:00.003-04:00

Al Reed: podcast superstar?

The Played Podcast interviewed Al about Demiurge, Mass Effect PC, and industry structure. It's a good listen -- a lot of information, a bunch of humor, a dash of good insights, with a light sprinkling of swear words.

Penny Arcade also likes Mass Effect PC

2008-06-04T17:52:00.003-04:00

The guys at Penny Arcade played Mass Effect when it came out on the 360. They liked it so much they even made a shirt celebrating the conversation wheel.

It's gratifying to see that they have also played the PC version Mass Effect. And they rather enjoy it:

[T]his is a "port" you can feel pretty fucking smug about.

Haiku Worklogs 5

2008-05-29T16:51:00.001-04:00

Kevin Teich, one of our engineers on Mass Effect PC, is also something of a poet. At least, he is where his daily worklogs are concerned. As the last installment of Kevin’s haiku worklogs for Mass Effect PC, I proudly present The Wisdom Cycle:

Lesson learned: never / hardcode your aspect ratios. / Just resize your art.

Mako floats on air, / leaving no trace behind it. / Nice driving, Shepard.

Peak 15 garage: / brightest place in universe. / Feros: shiny walls.

Squished subtitle text! / Faces with mismatched textures! / Make it all pretty.

Subtitles stand tall. / Shepard's words are poetry; / But not haiku.

Forgot my Worklog / but I fixed Saren cutscenes / and lost at foos ball.

Mass Effect PC = Fun

2008-05-28T10:24:00.003-04:00

Today's the day that Mass Effect for PC is available on store shelves.

Review have started to appear, and they've been very positive. If it weren't for all the hard work we put in, and the fact that we think the game is indeed this good, we might blush from all this praise.

GameDaily says nice things, then caps the review with:

The game that was already exceptional on the Xbox 360 is even better on the PC, so it's really a no brainer.

CVG gives exhorts you to shell out a few dollars:

If you've never played the game before, then this is an unequivocal must-buy. If you have, and the money's knocking about - then you still might be interested in playing the definitive Mass Effect.

IGN gives us a warm fuzzy feeling with:

This is easily one of the best RPGs on the platform in recent years, delivering a terrific new universe, a fun blend of action and role-playing, and a deeply satisfying story.

VideoGamer says:

This is a port, but it's more than a port. BioWare, with a little help from a friend, has made one of the best RPGs ever made even better.

And there's nothing else I could add to that.

Haiku Worklogs 4

2008-05-28T08:52:00.000-04:00

On the Mass Effect PC team, we cared – deeply – for the game’s characters. But we also cared for those other elements of the game that made it as great as it is. Kevin Teich expressed some of this in his haiku worklogs. This is The Graphics Cycle:

Animation trees / sap my day. By the true fiend / is the camera.

Behave, mouse cursor; / come out of your hiding spot / (only when you should).

Good morning! Revert! / Conversation wheel denied! / Handle it with art.

Mass Relays are pretty cool / except not so much when they / need a new light bulb.

Conversation wheel. / Nobody say anything; / shut up, stop leaking.

Virmire, cursed beach! / Land of flickering korgan, / missing Shepard heads.

Salarian guys: / in ur beach, fixin' ur heads. / Sorry @ ur mans.

Haiku Worklogs 3

2008-05-23T17:06:00.001-04:00

People on the Mass Effect PC team developed a healthy affection for the characters in the game. Kevin Teich appeared to have the strongest feelings about Ashley and Wrex – at least judging by how much he wrote about them in his haiku worklogs. Here is his Character Cycle:

Decon beam is fixed / most crew are happy and clean / but Wrex still smells bad.

Barrier crust fixed; / Liara much happier. / But I like Ashely.

Signs in Normandy / sharp like Wrex's face ridges. / Never get lost, now.

Drop ship runs smoothly. / Taking Ashley for a ride; / feet on the dashboard.

Mako leaves behind / snow melting on the mountain. / Wrex grunts happily.

Floating killer husks: / indestructible, rag dolled. / Go get 'em, Ashley.

Haiku Worklogs 2

2008-05-23T17:04:00.001-04:00

Another choice selection of Kevin Teich’s haiku worklogs for Mass Effect PC. These all refer to some internal process, like bug identification numbers, internal build numbers, or other process arcana. What’s a good name for these? Perhaps The Process Cycle:

1950, done. / Hi, 7950. / Just you and me now.

''950 triage / terrain lighting all messed up / WETGRAVEL, no love.

Animation bugs; / built 8596. / Now the fun begins.

Little boxes in / the tracer material; / they mock me. So rude.

Rebuilding levels, / crashing the editor like / Mako spraying snow.

Missing light map data. / Re-saving corrupts terrain. / No way to win. Life.

Wrong terrain textures. / Can't fix CachedMaterials. / Must be the cooker.

Haiku Worklogs 1

2008-05-21T19:31:00.001-04:00

A little insight into our development process: every day, everyone at Demiurge writes a short worklog – a report on what they did that day. Kevin Teich, one of our engineers here, wrote many of his Mass Effect PC logs in haiku. I hope you enjoy this insight into the development process, and get as much of a kick from these as we did. Here’s a selection of worklog haikus I think of as The Therum Cycle:

Therum's cooked terrain / remains corrupt. However, / Eden's fires relit.

Shepard's shadowed face / like Raphael painted it / Therum still too bright

Worse than New Jersey: / Therum, Liara's prison, / and mine. We suffer.

Therum terrain bug. / All I did was work on the / Therum terrain bug.

A day on Therum / is like heaven, except for / the misdrawn lava.

Lo, Therum is saved. / Now Shepard's head is missing. / Bernie fixed my bugs!

Night falls on Therum / darkness where there was once light / WTF, Therum.

Mass Effect PC goes gold!

2008-05-16T10:41:00.013-04:00

Mass Effect for the PC has gone gold! The discs are being manufactured as we speak!

Below is the Demiurge team, with our task board displaying another important color for us: the green of victory, the green of a job well done.

Full release after the jump.

Mass Effect For The PC Readies For Launch

BioWare announced today that the award-winning action role-playing game (RPG) Mass Effect for PC, published by Electronic Arts, has gone into manufacturing. Mass Effect will be available in North America on May 28, 2008 and June 6, 2008 to European retailers.

Gamers can still take advantage of pre-order specials¹ and should check with their preferred retailer for information. Alternatively, gamers who pre-order Mass Effect through the Electronic Arts online store at www.eastore.ea.com will receive bonus items² from the game Dead Space™, the highly anticipated sci-fi survival horror game by EA, including the first issue of the Dead Space comic book and a Dead Space poster while supplies last.

Fully optimized for the PC through a collaboration between BioWare and Demiurge Studios, Mass Effect includes a new Tactical Heads-Up Display, higher resolution visuals, an enhanced inventory system, fully optimized controls designed specifically for the PC, individual squad control and a new decryption mini-game. The "Bring Down the Sky" downloadable content for Mass Effect on PC, featuring 90 minutes of new gameplay, will also be available free³ for registered BioWare Community members at the launch of Mass Effect PC.

Originally released for the Xbox 360™ videogame and entertainment system, Mass Effect has received critical acclaim throughout the world with more than 80 awards including 2007 Console Game of the Year and Role-Playing Game of the Year (http://masseffect.bioware.com/previewsawards/).

Mass Effect is rated "M" for Mature by the ESRB. For more information about Mass Effect, please visit www.masseffect.com.

¹ Value of discount will be deducted from product list price. Valid for new orders of "Mass Effect" for PC of equal or greater value only. Discount is valid only on purchases from participating retailers. This offer is not valid at the EA STORE at www.eastore.ea.com. This offer expires on May 27, 2008, and cannot be combined with any other offer, Gift Card, rebate or other discount coupons. Valid only in U.S. Limit one offer per person. Subject to availability. Customers are responsible for shipping, handling and applicable sales tax. Offer may not be substituted, exchanged, sold or redeemed for cash or other goods or services. Void where prohibited, taxed or restricted by law.

² Offer expires May 27,2008. Good only for new purchases of "Mass Effect" for PC. Valid only at the EA STORE at www.eastore.ea.com. Limit one offer per person. Offer may not be substituted, exchanged, sold or redeemed for cash or other goods or services. Valid only in U.S. May not be combined with any other offer, gift card, rebate or discount coupon. Product subject to availability. Retailers, distributors and employees of Electronic Arts Inc. and their agencies/affiliates are not eligible. Void where prohibited, taxed or restricted by law.

³ Requires Mass Effect for the PC.

Shacknews likes Mass Effect PC

2008-05-14T15:47:00.005-04:00

Don't just take our word that Mass Effect for PC is good. Listen to Shacknews:

It's been so long since I've invoked any hostility in defending PC-centric control schemes over console counterparts—I guess Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare changed me, or made me soft, or something.
But with Mass Effect's somewhat limited Xbox 360 control configuration transitioned to its reworked form on the PC, I'm on the cusp of becoming an elitist jerk again.

Rest of article at the Shacknews site. Gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.

More delicious Mass Effect PC News

2008-05-12T17:32:00.005-04:00

Excited to see Mass Effect for the PC hit the shelves soon? I know we are!

To whet your appetite even more, you can see a perfectly lovely gameplay video, talked through by our friends at BioWare, over at GameSpot, and a Q&A with Demiurge's very own Al Reed at play™.

Mass Effect Developer Diary 2: Divide and Conquer

2008-04-22T08:50:00.010-04:00

So one awesome advantage of working with the PC is that it avoids most of the control constraints one faces when working with a console. You've got a keyboard packed to the gills with keys. Even better, the use of a mouse means that the user interface can be packed with as many additional buttons as the artists are willing to make.

Mass Effect for the Xbox 360 featured the ability to give Squad Commands. You could order your squadmates to move to a location, attack a specific target, hold their current position, or regroup by using the D-Pad. I really enjoy playing the Vanguard class. Throwing the energy attacks is sweet, and I still have the option of just charging into combat. In order to keep my team balanced, I usually bring Wrex and Tali along on missions. Whenever I'm low on health and waiting for my abilities to cool down, I take cover and tell Wrex to handle things. I aim at the far end of the combat area and give the move order.

Wrex charges out across the battlefield guns blazing, taking fire exactly the way a space dinosaur hitman should. Unfortunately, orders are sent to the entire team so Tali goes charging after him, guns blazing, taking fire exactly the way a plucky space mechanic should not. She's inevitably taken out and I'm left with fewer ways to debuff any new enemies that appear. Awkward.

So we took on the task of being able to give commands to your squadmates separately. Mass Effect PC replaces the Power and Weapon wheels of yore with the sleek, elegant Tactics HUD. The Tactics HUD allows the player to pause the action and quickly make tactical decisions for their team. The player can switch weapons and cast abilities with a few quick clicks, and then get on their way. Even better, players can now select orders from each teammate's orders palette. Bam. Ashley's gunning dudes down and Liara's running to safety.

The awesome part is that this really opened up the possiblilities for squad tactics. Squadmates can now flank enemies. You can order them to chip away at two separate targets. Weaker enemies can cast abilities from a safer point. Tougher squadmates can risk danger without having to worry about weaker casters tagging along. Mass Effect has this sweet setup where you can select your squad based on how you want to approach each situation. Players can now fully play to the strengths of each character.

Now, when I play the PC version and I'm vanguard-ing it up and low on health. I can park behind a toppled pillar, and tell Tali to do the same. Wrex can then be ordered to go charging into battle while Tali casts debuffs from a safe place. I do not recommend trying this alone, as you will probably need to high five someone.

Mass Effect Developer Diary: 15 Seconds of Fun

2008-04-07T17:15:00.006-04:00

So for the past months, I've been working as a designer on the PC version of Mass Effect. Mass Effect is a BioWare RPG dressed up in some fancy new shooter pants. In addition to having neat combat sequences, it also features the RPG staples of exploration and loot collection. The player occasionally comes across a door or a container that is locked. In order to get past these obstacles, the characters must use their skills in electronics or decryption. The player controls this in the form of a minigame.In the Xbox 360 version, the minigame used the classic whack-a-mole mechanic, but with GamePad buttons instead of small mammals. It did a good job of creating an engaging minigame that the player had to focus intently on, but many people felt that the "Push the blinking lights to unlock the door" interface broke the immersion a little bit. So, we decided to take another stab at it.

My first thought when I was designing the new minigame was that I wanted the analogy to be a little closer to what the characters in the game were doing. Whenever anyone does something technical in Mass Effect, they make a fist to bring up their omni-tool, the sweet holographic PDA gauntlet. When they use it, the holographic ring swivels around and they poke at buttons as they pass by. Swivel, Poke, Swivel, Poke. The game interface was basically already there.

So how elaborate should the mini-game be? If the game is too long and involved, it pulls people away from the game, and after they've completed it several times, it becomes an elaborate chore. If the game is too short and simple, then it is simply an annoying interruption in the flow of the game. To me, the minigame is like rolling the dice for a skill check in a pen and paper game. The advantage of the minigame over the dice roll however, is that the player is given the opportunity to sway their luck one way or the other. It is that brief moment of truth where the player anxiously determines if they have what it takes to open the chest, or in Mass Effect's case, hack the crate.

The original decryption minigame did a great job of maintaining that sense of tension as the player poised to press the buttons as they lit up, but ultimately it was purely a test of reflexes. In order to make the player feel like they were actually learning and reasoning their way through the game, I wanted to add an element of choice. So to combine tension and choice, our design was shaping up to be a string of quick choices the player would be forced to make. But what sort of choices?

The time had come to do a little research. So I sat down and spent some time playing flash games on the internet. I made a point to frequently scribble in my notebook and say "Hrmm, interesting" loud enough for nearby coworkers to hear so as to avoid any suspicion that I was just goofing off. A few hours later, I had not won any ipods, but I had reached a few conclusions. I wanted the player to be looking around the moving environment trying to calculate the best time and position to strike so as to gain the highest benefit. Move, Strike, Move, Strike.

Hacking into a computer has a lot of metaphors that have led to some interesting, if not particularly technically accurate metaphors over the years. So I decided to go with the metaphor of the "virus" trying to infect the "data", whilst trying to avoid "anti-virus" programs. The avatar would swing around a ring, and then, when they could find a spot that was relatively safe of the anti-virii, move one step closer to the final goal. The player would be balancing their resources of proximity to the center and safety, while their time resources were trickling away.

And so I ended up with something that looked like Frogger, but if you were trying to cross a rotary. Frogger is a classic game that has proven the strength of its mechanics again and again over the years and it helped me achieve the goals I had for the minigame.

1) Don't make it so elaborate that players feel they have to grind through it.
2) Don't make it so simple that it becomes a mindless speedbump in the gameplay.
3) Maintain Immersion in the Mass Effect Universe.

Good News Everybody

2008-04-07T14:27:00.005-04:00

Along the way into the new offices, Demiurge picked up a new employee – me! One of the nice things about working in the production side of things is that I can point to the buzz that Mass Effect for the PC is getting.

An overview of the Mass Effect PC game experience can be found at VideoGamer. Interviews with our friends and BioWare, talking about Mass Effect for the PC, can be found at the Eurogamer website and CVG. If you're itching for some gameplay videos, a few are available at GamersHell. There's a lot to be excited about in the PC version of the game!

We Made It

2008-03-10T22:37:00.001-04:00

We've landed safely in the new place. Pics and the full story coming soon; gotta unpack first.

Snag #1

2008-03-07T01:30:00.006-05:00

We hit our first snag tonight in the move and it was a big one. We decided to purchase our desks from Ikea and go with the Galant line. They've got a nifty tool that let us lay the place out and the stuff was several times less expensive than all of the other vendors. It's not the most durable stuff, but given that we're not sure how we're going to use the space yet it seemed like a great choice.

...and then the problems began....

As everyone probably knows, Ikea desks require a certain amount of assembly. In the interest of keeping the team who is hard at work on Mass Effect working hard, we hired some folks who are professional furniture assembly people. Sadly, they came in, worked for about seven hours and massively mis-assembled everything.

With 48 hours until the move we turned our usual Thursday night game night into a furniture assembly party. I'm told by our friends at BioWare than they used to make all the new people build their own desks so this plan isn't completely crazy.

About four hours, several pizzas and a healthy amount of beer later, we got just about everything put together.

Build Out Completes

2008-02-29T01:22:00.001-05:00

After a lot of hard work from an astonishing number of different people with different skills the space is finally physically complete. We've got a whole bunch of new desks on order that are set to be delivered on Thursday and a bit of wiring left to do but it's all really coming together.

Kristin Price Interviewed at WomenGamers.com

2008-02-24T14:46:00.002-05:00

Kristin Price one of our producers did an interview with WomenGamers.com during the development of Brothers in Arms for the Wii that just went up.

Check it out