Hideki Konno, Manager/Producer of Software Development Group No. 1, Nintendo Co, What we have learned from Nintendogs
Hideki Konno engaged attendees during his keynote talk with an in-depth discussion of lessons learned from the experience of developing Nintendogs. As part of a successful career at Nintendo, Hideki has worked on many of the company's most popular franchises across its various hardware platforms. But even for an industry veteran like Hideki, the concept behind Nintendogs, and the resulting final product, was an entirely new way of thinking.
The development of Nintendogs and the development of Nintendo DS were happening simultaneously at Nintendo, which enabled Hideki's software development team to work closely with the hardware development group and make minor tweaks to the DS which Nintendogs could take advantage of.
The development team on Nintendogs was inspired by the DS's innovative capabilities such as dual screen, touch screen, microphone and wireless communications. Both the hardware and software teams were moving towards the goal of creating unique gaming experiences which would help expand the gaming population, putting games in the hands of people who had never played a video game before. At the same time, both teams were also careful to ensure that the hardware and software would have a wide appeal to veteran gamers.
Hideki talked about how his team's imagination was ignited by the DS capabilities and motivated the team to develop such unique game play features such as touch screens to pet and train the dogs; voice verification to enable the dogs to respond differently to different voices; and breakthrough wireless communications delivered through Bark Mode.
From the moment he first interacted with a puppy in Nintendogs, and a smile broke across his face, Hideki knew that the game was a winner. The final product has enjoyed great success both in Japan and North America, enabling Nintendo of achieving its goal of expanding the audiences for gaming through a truly unique game.
Eric Zimmerman, CEO, gameLab - Making and breaking the rules: Game design as a critical practice
Eric's afternoon keynote was undoubtedly the only session at the Montreal International Game Summit that featured a real-world MMRPS (Massively Multiplayer Rock-Paper-Scissors) game. The game served as a good demonstration of many of Eric's points about game design and the role of game designers in structuring the player's experience by creating rules. An established author and lecturer on game design theory, Eric contends that game design warrants similar status to other design disciplines such as architecture and graphic design.
Eric also unveiled his proposed game developers' bill of rights which generated lots of buzz and discussion among session attendees. Eric framed the discussion of the developers' bill of rights so as not to position it as a guide to contract negotiation between developers and publishers. He wants the ideas to be discussed within the industry as a possible starting point to help change the structure of the video game business and the developer/publisher relationship.
The developers' bill of rights proposed by Eric is certainly a work in progress and he is continuing to gather feedback from various people in the industry. The 13-point framework covered topics such as IP ownership, right to approve marketing and distribution programs, acceptable work conditions, and final approval in creative process.
Eric believes that the adoption of a game developers' bill of rights is required to address the five key areas of the video game industry structure: design, development, funding, marketing and distribution. By furthering the discussion, Eric believes changes can be made to help create a better future for developers and the industry at large.
Highlights of day 1
