Overview

The AAA game design category from the 2009 ScreenBurn at SXSW Game Design Competition will have an hour-long panel, composed of four professional and modern game industry experts, to judge and provide meaningful game design feedback. Each of the four finalists will present a 5 minute PowerPoint or Keynote presentation followed by 5 minute Q&A by the panelists. This is intended to be an accelerated simulation of what companies endure when pitching game concepts to publishers. Finally, a grand prize winner in each category will be determined by jury vote and audience reaction. The winner of the competition will be interviewed by attending press, and will be featured in a conversation with an industry professional at Studio SX on Monday, March 16.

Panel

• (moderator) Kain Shin – IGDA
• Raphael Colantonio – Arkane Studios
• Souris Hong-Porretta – Entertainment Media Ventures
• Chris Charla – VP Biz dev, Foundation 9 Entertainment

Introduction

First SXSW AAA Game-design competition. What’s the difference between casual and AAA? To us, AAA means the full-game experience that is high budget. And you are trying to make the largest full-scale high-budget game without cutting any of the experience.

Contestants we are about to see have been whittled down from a list of 30 contestants. It’s down to a list of 4. And the audience will decide the winner. So, be prepared!

CoverUp – Intrigue, Consipracy, and Kidnapping

Concept is a game that people will want to play, and they might actually learn something in the process. The hook- hero has a run-in with a mysterious girl and gets wrapped up in a conspiracy on a college campus. It’s for 17-22 year-olds, so it can’t be drugs, or sex. So it’s a conspiracy about The Man.

The Gist – hero has to unravel clues and uncover evidence of the conspiracy to present to the authorities.

Game Play – involves mental puzzles such as code and research clues.

Game Perspective – Players view the gmae from a 3rd person perspective.

Audience – Game is targeted to Freshmen on campuses, and Highschool seniors, etc.

ManorMeta

We Play Everywhere

A futuristic world designed for young people to grow in, as they face the challenges of their own being

Transmedia storyteling : A network gamespace

Growing trees with their hands. 3D motion capture. Look for hidden meaning. I enjoy playing games with a mission to change the world.

Geared towards ages 6-13 primarily

Project Z.E.U.S

Seth Smith – project ZEUS is an ecological game based on restoring life to a barren and lifeless earth. The goal is to create an experience where people can learn to co-exist with nature. The goal it to help people think about developing industry with a mind towards the environment.

Ring Master

Ladies and Gentlemen… children of all ages. Concept is a combination fantasy game in the circus genre. Ringmaster taps into the fantasy of running away to join the circus, only now you can do it in a game. You can choose to be any of the characters… clown, acrobat, elephant, etc.

Painful. Wow, I can’t keep typing. This game really seems silly.

Strengths and Weaknesses Evaluated by Panelists

(Charla) CoverUp – cool education aspects, and I don’t have a problem with the educational style. The biggest challenge is how it related to literacy. ManorMeta is really cool and expansive and crazy, but I have no idea how you make that game. Z.E.U.S was really neat. It was the most traditional of the games, the most commercially accessible one. The procedural stuff will be hard, but if you can pull it off, that’s cool. Ringmaster, I really like the concept. I like the idea of putting together routines. It’s definitely not a traditional MMO, but that’s cool.

(Hong-Porretta) With CoverUp, it seems like it couldn’t be a AAA title. ManorMeta was pretty unique. Project Z.E.U.S., there needs to be a little more gameplay development. With Ringmaster, conceptually it’s wonderful, but it also seems that it has too much game play.

(Colantonio) CoverUp game I don’t see as a AAA, unless there are more physical types of gameplay in there. ManorMeta, really cool values, the vision seems really unclear to me. Z.E.U.S. is one of the most viral pitch I’ve heard, and I think subject matter will appeal to a lot of people. Circus game tried to do too many things at the same time. Circus version of Rock Band would be cool enough.

The Vote

Project Z.E.U.S is the winner!