Ship Simulator Extremes Developer Diaries: Diary #4 now available!

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[Frank_VSTEP]

Ship Simulator Extremes Developer Diaries
In the final stretch towards the release of Ship Simulator Extremes in august 2010, we will be giving Ship Sim fans a unique behind-the-scenes look of the VSTEP development studio and learn what the Ship Simulator Extremes team is up to in a series of developer diaries.  

This thread is used for posting the diaries.
For feedback and discussion about these diaries, please go to this thread (http://80.95.161.114/shipsim/forum/index.php/topic,18792.0.html)

[Frank_VSTEP]

A not so long time ago, in a dev. studio in Rotterdam...

Every good meal requires the right amount of ingredients, a cook that knows what he’s doing and an enthusiastic audience to devour the creation.  If you put it that way, Ship Simulator Extremes is in fact not so different from a delicious lamb chop or tournedos dish.
Before we put the kettle on the stove however, there is always a lot of planning to precede the actual development. A planning  that is subject to change…and change…and change again until it’s just right. There is no room for chaos in the kitchen development studio. That doesn’t mean the chaos factor doesn’t creep in occassionally though. More so, it is inevitable to pop-up at some stage when working on a project of this magnitude and complexity...

Key is how one manages this chaos factor, something we’ve become quite good at throughout the years.

One of the biggest challenges at the start of any development process is feature selection, aka the « what do we want and don’t we want in the game »-discussion. Thankfully, we have our community to tell us exactly « what they want », « what they don’t want », « what they really, really – pretty please with sugar on top want », or « what they wouldn’t touch with a large iron pole if we ever dare to put it in the game. »
However fantastic it is to receive feedback from our community, it inevitably means we have to make heartbreaking choices as well. After all, it’s impossible to integrate every suggestion.

So unfortunately, even while we really like the idea of a multi-missile launcher powerboat with James Bond at the helm, or the Black Pearl having a go against our modern navy frigates, these are features currently not implemented in Ship Simulator Extremes (we can see the  modmakers in the back with a big smile on their face now) !

We wonder if the Extremes in the title has poised some of you to send us these pretty wild ideas ? Surely not, Miss Moneypenny.  

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[Frank_VSTEP]

Have I got a vessel for you…

This above sentence has got to be one of the most frequently heard statements in our Ship Sim mailbox. Our fan community is a great source of information and knowledge, so it’s only normal that they have this great wishlist of wonderful vessels out there that they absolutely, positively want us  to implement into the game. A few creative members even create beautiful 3D models of vessels they want in the game. Surely, with so much of the work already done, it should be peanuts for VSTEP to get their vessel in the game, right ?

Not quite. Unfortunately.

Oh sure, we could go with the easy solution, put any vessel in the game, smack some standard dynamics on it and see how it works out. There are some « simulator » games out there that do this, but they don’t take their realism too seriously, and vessel response is far from satisfactory.  If you just put the same type of behaviour on a vessel, without the proper respect for dynamics, the fans will notice immediately, and we want our simulator game to be a true simulator. That’s why we want to do things right, and doing things right means that it takes time and considerable effort.

So even though we are quite aware that there are fantastic vessels out there, and yes – make no mistake - we would definitely love to have every single one of them in the game, it is not going to happen. Not if our players want them to behave like the real thing, which is exactly what they, quite rightly, want. To give you a small peek inside the developers kitchen, it takes no less than 48 complex steps to get a vessel implemented in the game. Step number one? Getting the legal aspect right. People tend to forget that ships have owners, and that these owners have to agree their vessel is being used in a game, unless you’d like a lawsuit in the mail every week of course… Not every ship owner out there is keen on having Youtube videos pop up of their million dollar vessel being used in a game – because some gamers are most creative in making even the most non-violent simulation game look like a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. And even though there is enormous marketing potential for a vessel used in a game, and lots of ship owners are aware of this, we always ask very nicely and do the paperwork right before we continue.

Once the legal aspect and permission are covered, there you go, step one covered for you, only forty-seven to go. These 47 steps range from the complex integration of the vessel with the realistic math and dynamics model, to creating a correct collision model and valid 3D update of the vessel. Things that are very work intensive, and require lots of patience and skill. No one ever claimed it was easy, but at least now you know why we have to make careful choices and there are a lot of variables to take into account before a vessel can come to life in our game !

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[Frank_VSTEP]

Spreading the word…

We know Ship Simulator Extremes will rock, our dedicated community knows that Ship Simulator Extremes will rock, but does the rest of the world know that Ship Simulator Extremes will rock ? Spreading the word is essential in reaching all simulator fans, because if there are still simulation fans and ship fanatics out there that haven’t heard of Ship Simulator, then we will do our utmost best to change just that. After all, why should anyone be deprived of their bit of maritime gamesfun?

There are different ways to get the word out, and all of them have their strengths. The traditional channels like gamespress sneak peeks and advertising spring to mind. But there are many others, very effective channels. More powerful than any advertising - although a nice advert in a leading mag is of course always cool and great for your ego - and a lot more cost effective, is the word of mouth. Gamers telling other gamers why they love the game and why they want others to enjoy it as well. As far as word of mouth goes, the Ship Simulator Series can count itself very lucky to have a dedicated community spreading the word and getting other people on board (pardon the pun).  

However, there is no escaping the traditional events, so we’ll be at press and publisher events, strutting our stuff and talking our talk. A new menace at these events nowadays are videocamera’s that seem to pop up from everywhere. Back in the old days, an interview was no more than a journalist with a voice recorder, and the interviewee getting plenty of time to think about what to say.  Nowadays, you get crammed full of microphone receivers, and are staring into a cameralight before you can say « you’re not writing this down are you ? ».  Thus, every single word you say is recorded, analyzed and re-analyzed by the press, and then by the gamers, as if it were the holy scripture itself.  

Ah well, it’s a logical evolution in an ever changing industry, both in front of the spotlights as well as behind the scenes. A good thing ? In the long run, sure, because the more information about a game you long to play is available, the more eager you get…we hope !

And, as our presence at this years E3 expo, the biggest games event on the planet, proved once again, some journalists are a true liability when given a video cam: See for yourself (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNruUZW31Nk)!
But thank god there are professionals out there as well :
E3 Gametrailers.com Ship Sim Extremes video (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-ship-simulator/700649)

If nothing E3 was very exciting, and Paradox did a great job of making us developers feel very comfortable. The schedule was tighter than a G-string on a Sumo wrestler, with a neverending stream of interested journalists popping up from all angles and at all times. It was worth it though, as the general reception of the game was very good and people were surprised by the quality and realism it will offer. Goes without saying that our team is striving to do its very best to match up to expectations.

Some lessons learned at E3 :
- never trust a journalist with a mini HD camera asking about flamethrowers.
- Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and EA have ridiculously huge marketing budgets.
- A Belgian beer, however tasty and refreshing, costs an arm and a leg in LA, and referring to Heineken as beer is a layman’s mistake.
- South-Koreans make quite a racket when their team scores at the World Cup, even if it’s the middle of the night.
- One of the Paradox employees thinks Brussels and Belgium are different countries (you know who you are, be very very ashamed !)
- Having the NBA finals the same time as E3 causes massive traffic congestion to and from the convention centre and turns downtown LA into a militarized zone.
- Even Boothbabes and Cylons complain about making long hours.
- Some E3 babes get paid for just lying in the sun looking beautiful…how’s that for a nice job !
- Ship Simulator Extremes will surprise many people, according to some leading game journo's.

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[Frank_VSTEP]

Tourist Tales…

Forgive us if this is stating the bloody obvious, but being a master craftsman working on a game that features  locations all over the planet has its perks. And we’re not talking small perks either, as the guys and gals from the modelling department will undoubtedly confirm (or at least we’ve never heard any of them complain).  

After all, we’re creating a simulator, right ? And these environments need to be modelled as accurate as can be, right?  It does take some persuading of management and shareholders, but in the end, a « research » trip to Marseille, New York and Sydney - to name but a few - is a great asset to creating an environment that gets as close to the real thing as possible. And just in case we fail miserably, at least we’ve had one hell of a vacat… working experience. Keeping this in mind, it must come as no surprise that whenever we start talking about which new environment to add, the modellers are often throwing in the most exotic locations. More so, that if we’d let them have the final word, the new Ship Simulator Extremes might just as well have been called Ship Simulator Exotic Holiday locations I’d like to go with my wife/girlfriend (maybe a thought for an add-on ?)
On the other hand, when we decided together with Greenpeace on adding the Antarctic, there was a look of utter fear on some of their faces. « Surely they’re not gonna send me to… »  

A modeller’s biggest friend when on one of these research trips is his camera.  Enormous amounts of photographs are needed to give a good impression of the look and feel of an environment. As our game focusses on the player being on water, going on a boat ride through the environments gives the best results. Once the pictures are taken, it’s time to work some magic and show off some technical skills. You take your sea charts, elevation data & sattelite images of the area and align them meticulously. The result is something the best geometrician would be proud of.  Once you have your terrain correct, it is time to fill in the details, paint the environment and add buildings and famous landmarks to the lot.

The best reality check is our community. A lot of our players are avid ship owners or professionals, who are familiar with one or more of the harbours in the game. The biggest compliment we can get is that they actually find their way through the harbour as they would in reality, using the environment as their point of reference. On the other hand, whenever we mess up or the terrain does not correspond to the real thing for some reason, our players are the first to let us know. So we can proceed and correct any mistakes that still exist. After all, it has to be correct. Sometimes we wonder if our modellers leave a small error in the map, just so they can go back for some « more pictures ».  They wouldn’t…would they ?

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