World Congress of Science and Factual Producers

On Friday December 4th, I took part in a speed-networking event at the World Congress of Science and Factual Producers.  What was interesting about this was being able to step away from the traditional pc/console space and think about new opportunities to use games and games technology.

In talking to the directors and producers, I had the thought that perhaps games were closer to documentary features than to narrative features.  The topics explored – happiness as a contagion that can be tracked using network theory, or a man who built his own 300-million search-and rescue empire – were built on the film-maker exploring the world, creating theories, and constructing the narrative as they go, which is a clear analogue for what players do in games.

Not to say that there isn’t room for narrative in games, but modelling gameplay & the reveal of narrative in more of a documentary style might prove to be a useful template.

Game Connect Asia Pacific

Or GCAP as it’s less mouthfully known, took place at Crown from December 6th – 8th.  I gave two presentations – one on games and games literacy (which was attended by only 5 people due to a last minute room change) and one on the creative process of writing and how that applies to games.  Due to meetings and general schmoozing (and also pulling together my writing presentation), I saw almost none of the conference itself (other than Tim Stellmach’s keynote & the indie games that I was judging), but came away with the overall impression that from an art & design perspective, the content was unfocused and weak – which is reflected in a single stream that contained all of the art, design, and audio talks.  As design is one of our local industry’s challenges, it would be nice to see an increased focus on it next year.

Details on the presentations after the fold.

Games and Games Literacy

This is a slightly modified version of a talk I gave at the VITTA conference last year on models of interacting with games in terms of their components as well as traditional literacy and numeracy skills.

“Today’s students have never seen a world without video games.  They’re an integral part of life now, becoming a new cultural artifact, a new entertainment medium, and bringing with them a whole slew of new employment opportunities.

But how do they work?  And what are the parameters for having a meaningful dialog about them with our students?

In this session, Paul Callaghan, a veteran game developer, will explore the elements that contribute to games literacy and how that can be applied to traditional literacy and numeracy skills.”

Presentation – GCAP – Games and Games Literacy

What does a writer do anyway?

Standing room only for this session, which was incredibly flattering.  Also set a new record for me – 60 slides in just under 50 minutes!

“Telling stories is an essential part of our cultural fabric, but in the face of a new medium, one in which mechanics, rules, and play are at the heart of the audience experience, we’re still learning how to work the thousands of years of accumulated knowledge in writing and storytelling to our best advantage.

An often-neglected discipline in video games, this session will look at the skills and craft that writers use when approaching storytelling, dialogue, structure, and characterisation, and how to apply those to video games without losing the particular strengths of the medium.  By dissecting the craft of writing, it will demonstrate the thought processes behind story creation, what does and doesn’t work within the medium of games, and why some of those boundaries exist.  It will also show how some of those core concepts are applicable to games without stories, informing mechanic, level, and systems design.

Looking to the future, the session will lastly speculate on the marriage of traditional narrative and mechanics, and the sorts of stories that can only be told in the medium of games by exploiting the fundamental gameplay forces of agency, choice, rules, and goals.”

Collaborate to Innovate: A Networking Opportunity for Producers to Meet Digital Media and Gaming Experts – Friday 4th Dec

Taking linear broadcast projects to online and gaming platforms can present new possibilities in creativity, finance and audience reach. The key to a successful transition lies in the collaboration of teams with multi-disciplinary expertise. This session gives the opportunity to a limited number of experienced filmmakers interested in convergence to meet one-on-one with Australia’s leading digital media and gaming experts. The morning will provide an overview of techniques and possibilities followed by 15-minute one-on-one sessions for targeted advice and potential collaboration with any or all of the digital specialists.

Game Connect Asia Pacific 2009

Games Literacy – Sunday 6th December

Presentation – .mov

Today’s students have never seen a world without video games.  They’re an integral part of life now, becoming a new cultural artifact, a new entertainment medium, and bringing with them a whole slew of new employment opportunities.

But how do they work?  And what are the parameters for having a meaningful dialog about them with our students?

In this session, Paul Callaghan, a veteran game developer, will explore the elements that contribute to games literacy and how that can be applied to traditional literacy and numeracy skills.

What does a writer do anyway? – 3:35, Tuesday 8th December

Presentation – Google Presentation

Telling stories is an essential part of our cultural fabric, but in the face of a new medium, one in which mechanics, rules, and play are at the heart of the audience experience, we’re still learning how to work the thousands of years of accumulated knowledge in writing and storytelling to our best advantage.

An often-neglected discipline in video games, this session will look at the skills and craft that writers use when approaching storytelling, dialogue, structure, and characterisation, and how to apply those to video games without losing the particular strengths of the medium.  By dissecting the craft of writing, it will demonstrate the thought processes behind story creation, what does and doesn’t work within the medium of games, and why some of those boundaries exist.  It will also show how some of those core concepts are applicable to games without stories, informing mechanic, level, and systems design.

Looking to the future, the session will lastly speculate on the marriage of traditional narrative and mechanics, and the sorts of stories that can only be told in the medium of games by exploiting the fundamental gameplay forces of agency, choice, rules, and goals.

IGDA Melbourne

Trends for local indies – 10/11/09

Presentation – Google Presentation

An overview of local industry trends since 2000 and options for independent development.  More detail on the numbers can be found in the blog posts The State of Things and Collated data.

iDef 2009

Do you have a game plan? – 30/10/09

Presentation – .mov

The state of the industry worldwide by Tony Reed from Reed Interactive followed by an overview of the roles and career paths in development.

Take me by the hand – 31/10/09

Presentation – .mov

Join game developers Craig Duturbure and Paul Callaghan as they walk you through their favourite games and reveal the highlights and hiccups of game development.

Academy of Interactive Entertainment

Guest Lecture: Independent Development – 14/10/09

Presentation – .mov

The shape of the local industry and opportunities for indie developers, including what to focus on, experimental gameplay models, and options for funding and distribution.

Screen Australia

Innovation Session – 1/10/09

Presentation – .mov

An overview of games as an industry and medium, their relationship to film, and their relative strengths and weaknesses.

RMIT Games Program

Mechanics and Narrative – 8/09/09

Presentation – .mov

Lecture on symbolism and grammar and how that can be applied to traditional media and games.

SYN Media Learning Week 2009

Gaming and Learning: Panel Discussion and Play – 28/8/09

Games Industry and IT experts will help you learn and experience the educational potential of video games and gaming culture. Starting with a panel discussion on how games help students learn useful skills and ending with a chance to get your hands on some gaming consoles and play!

With Vincent Trundle and Michael Woods

Freeplay 2009

Where to from here? – 15/8/09

At the first Freeplay in 2004, there was no steam, no App store, no XNA, no Xbox Live Arcade, no PSN, and no WiiWare.

This panel looks at where we might be in another 5 years.

VITTA ICT Career Expo 2009

How I got a job playing games for a living – 1/8/09

Presentation – .mov

An updated version of my talk from 2008

Video games don’t just appear from nowhere.  Somewhere, right now, there are people writing code, making art, designing levels and putting the finishing touches on games that will eventually find their way into PCs and consoles all over the world.  In Australia, there are around 2500 people doing just that and this number is expected to grow dramatically over the next 5 years.  In this presentation, Paul Callaghan, who has worked as a programmer, a game designer, and now a games teacher, will talk about how he found his way into the industry, how things have changed since then, how it’s possible to earn a living from it, and how it’s not all just sitting around playing games all day.

Emerging Writers’ Festival 2009

I can say yes now but in the end it will be no – 31/5/09

You spend hours deliberating over your punctuation, only to have actors, artists, directors and all and sundry throw out semi colons with barely a thought! This panel looks at maintaining ownership over your own words.

With Liz Argall, Angela Bentzien, Paul Callaghan and Luke Devenish

Hosted by Andrew Horabain

Doctor Who – Computer Game Storylining  – 31/5/09

In late 2005 Paul Callaghan found himself unsuccessfully pitching to the BBC for the new Doctor Who computer game. Eventually, he worked with them on developing the game – and what followed was a writer’s dream in aligning with the revamped TV show, and a nightmare of restrictions due to the differing viewpoints of the BBC.

In conversation with Daniel Ducrou

CAE Melbourne

Industry Overview – 13/5/09

As part of the PWE Industry Overview subject, an outline of what writing for games involves and how I found myself doing it.

National Screenwriters Conference 2009

Writing – It’s More Than A Game – 26/2/09

Presentation – .mov

Games On Net Article

Presentation Footage

Panel Discussion Footage

The differentiation between games and films is blurring rapidly. As game graphics and other technical innovations reach a highpoint, games are depending more and more on character, story and plot… and traditional screenwriters are becoming a valuable resource for the games industry.

The major global film market (15-30yo) is spending more time and money on games than cinema – and the trend isn’t slowing. So is there a place for you in game writing? Do you have to be a user to appreciate the form? How do your skills translate to this exciting field? And is the sky really the limit? Find out how you can tap into this exciting writing opportunity from three internationally respected games writers.

VITTA 2008

From designer to teacher and back again – 24/11/08

Presentation – .mov

Today’s students have never seen a world without video games.  According to ABS statistics: 12.5m games were sold in 2006; 6.1m video game consoles have been sold since 2000; 3.6m Australian households have a video game console; and 4.8million Australian households have an internet enabled PC which is capable of playing games.

In this session, Paul Callaghan, a veteran game developer now teaching programming & game design in the VET sector, will discuss his experiences transitioning from industry to teaching and how playing games and learning are inextricably linked.

Critical thinking about video games – 26/11/08

Presentation – .mov

Today’s students have never seen a world without video games.  They’re an integral part of life now, becoming a new cultural artifact, a new entertainment medium, and bringing with them a whole slew of new employment opportunities.

But how do they work?  And what are the parameters for having a meaningful dialog about them with our students?

In this session, Paul Callaghan, a veteran game developer now teaching programming & game design in the VET sector, will discuss the theory of how video games work and how that knowledge can be used in the classroom.

GC:AP 2008

Towards a theory of Everything: Lessons learned as a programmer, designer, writer, and teacher – 20/11/08

Presentation – .mov

One of our first instincts is to play. As children, we use it to explore our environment, to test roles, to establish our position in the world. We test the rules imposed by our psychology, our biology, our social structure. We form our own individual goals as we go, trying to build a model of how the world works, trying to work out who we are and why we’re here. We skip and stumble and run and tell stories as we move further and further away from our comfort zone towards the extreme limits of our abilities, where we fall, hopefully not too far, then pull out our pencils and scribble down that we found the edge of the map.

Video games tap deeply into our need for play, but now the goals are constructed, the rules are more rigid, and how we interact with the world has been carefully designed as an experience. But that experience is still an act of exploration. The player is wandering through a game space finding the edges, charting the terrain, failing and trying again.

The process of creation is the same. We begin with a vague sense of where we are, and where we want to go, and then we write experimental programs and sketch thick lines in photoshop and build prototypes from paper. We tentatively map the programming and art and design space, finding new things, stumbling, falling, mapping the edges, still following that same urge we have as children – to play.

This instinct is central to how we learn, how we create, and how we live. Drawing on experience as a programmer, a designer, a writer, and a teacher, this presentation will discuss how that knowledge can inform our approach to the development process and the eventual player experience.

iDef 2008

Industry and Education working together – 14/8/08

Panel with Kurt Busch & Damon Raynor from Krome Melbourne

VITTA ICT Career Expo 2008

How I got a job playing games for a living – 2/8/08

Presentation – .mov

Video games don’t just appear from nowhere.  Somewhere, right now, there are people writing code, making art, designing levels and putting the finishing touches on games that will eventually find their way into PCs and consoles all over the world.  In Australia, there are around 2500 people doing just that and this number is expected to grow dramatically over the next 5 years.  In this presentation, Paul Callaghan, who has worked as a programmer, a game designer, and now a games teacher, will talk about how he found his way into the industry, how things have changed since then, how it’s possible to earn a living from it, and how it’s not all just sitting around playing games all day.

ACMI Game Girls Event

Workshop with Moran Paldi

Game developer and educator Paul Callaghan and games designer Moran Paldi will host a workshop where groups will get hands-on with the design process by conceiving a game around your favourite TV franchise.

Freeplay 2007

Independents Day

Panel presentation with Jonathan Blow and Robert J. Spencer – video; powerpoint

How can independents come up with earth-shattering ideas that change the face of gaming? What are the parameters of independent game making and who are the innovators outside of the big-publisher system? This session investigates innovation in independent gaming to date, and discusses where it might come from in the future.

Why I still really love you

Chair of panel with David Hewitt, Eve Penford-Dennis, and Andrei Nadin – video

Newbie game developers are everywhere, but their love of game development is often short lived; like puppy love it goes away real quick when the going gets rough. So how do great developers maintain the love through the tough times and, perhaps more importantly, why do they stick it out? Veteran insiders express the real reasons why they still love games development.

Freeplay 2005

What happens when you become a designer?

Panel discussion with Clint Reid and Kirsty Baird

Everyone has an idea for the best game ever, the most awesome combination of favourite game x plus sensational game y, but what is it really like to be a game designer?  These panellists talk about the experience of designing a game for the first time.

Game Stories: How to make yours much, much better.

Panel presentation with Mark Angeli and Jackie Turnure -   powerpoint

There are many ways to tell an interactive narrative – scripted sequences, cut scenes, emergent storylines to name a few – our panel of expers will argue about when to use what to improve your story and whether you need one at all.

Burning down the Shed.

Chair of panel with Greg Costikyan, Mark Angeli, and Katharine Neil

This is our Australian Indie Answer to the GDC’s ‘Burning down the house’ session.  Angry game developers vent their spleen.

To gather the numbers, I used metacritic‘s advanced search restricted to developers (here‘s an example using Torus) and hand-copied the results straight into a spreadsheet.

In some cases, where data wasn’t available on metacritic and there was more than one sku for the game, I used gamerankings.com for a representative value.

To select by ‘unique’ title versus ‘port’ in cases where there was more than one version (both Heroes of the Pacific and Heroes over Europe are good examples) I treated the highest rated version as the ‘unique’ and the other versions as ‘ports’ of that. All versions of Heroes of the Pacific rated 76% so it’s just a function of a sorting algorithm that I took the Xbox version as the original. In the case of Heroes over Europe, the PC version rated 66% compared to 64% on PS3 and 62% on Xbox 360 so that’s treated as the lead platform and the others as ports.

Because of the way metacritic gathers reviews & collates data, there are omissions, so if anyone has additional data, feel free to email it to me or post it in the comments and I’ll update it.

For more information on the second half – opportunities for independent developers – check out Simon Carless’ and David Edery’s presentations from Film Victoria‘s Digital Distribution Summit:

Simon Carless (from here)

Indie Game Metrics  – October 2009

Western Indie Game Trends

Digital Distribution Summit Video

David Edery

Digital Distribution Summit keynote

A more detailed breakdown of the numbers is below the fold…

The data was gathered from Metacritic for companies based in Melbourne.  There were 107 games released between 2000 & 2009, with an average rating of 62.82%, a minimum of 27% and a maximum of 93%

Since 2000, the number of SKUs released has increased from 3 in 2000 & 2001 to 18 in 2009, with a peak of 20 in 2007.

The nature of these titles has changed too, with most of the growth coming in the area of porting games across multiple platforms.  This has jumped from 2 titles in 2003 – 2005 to 13 in 2007 and 11 in 2009.

Broken down by platform, most of the titles shipped have been for the GBA (18), the Playstation 2 (20),and the Wii (16).  Next-gen consoles are poorly represented, with only 6 titles available on Xbox 360 and 2 on Playstation 3.

Looking at the breakdown by rating shows an almost bell-curve skewing slightly to the right.

Breaking down the ratings by year, reveals a downward trend of average ratings.  In 2000, the average rating was 81% with a minimum of 68%, a max of 93%, and a spread of 25.  In 2009, the average rating is 63%, with a minimum of 46%, a maximum of 76%, and a spread of 30.

The minimum rating is the one that has dropped most dramatically – from 68% in 2000 to 46% in 2009, with a minimum of 27% in 2007.  The maximum rating overall has dropped far less, but still tends slightly downwards – from 93% in 2000 to 76% in 2009.

Taking a look at just licensed titles, the overall trend is mirrored by the global average.  In 2000, the average rating for a licensed title was 81% and in 2009 is  58%.

Splitting this into minimum and maximum ratings, both are trending downwards.  In 2000, the minimum rating for a licensed title was 68% and in 2009 is 50%, with a minumum value of 35% in 2008.   in 2000, the maximum rating was 93% – also the global maximum – and is 70% in 2009.

Original titles, by comparison, have fared better.  The overall trend is fairly flat, although there are far fewer original titles – with none being released at all in 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2006.

Looking at the minimum and maximum, the lower values trend downwards slightly, but are also more erratic than for licensed titles.  In 2003, the minimum for an original title was 75% and in 2009 is 69, with a minimum of 38 in 2008.  The maximum rating for original titles has trended slightly upwards, with a maximum of 78% in 2003 and 76% in 2009, but with an overall maximum of 84% in 2007.

Looking at these values in aggregate, it can be seen that in years when original titles are released, they rate the same or higher than licensed titles.

So, what does all of this mean?

In the absence of other data (unit sales, profit, chart positions), it shows that in the core console & PC market, local developers have been producing more titles, but those titles have overall seen a drop in their critical reception.  There are any number of factors that are contributing to this and I’m not in a position to speculate on those.  What it does suggest though is that, as developers, we need to start thinking about alternatives to the current development model across all of the areas covered in my presentation – team structure, financial models, audience engagement, and creativity and innovation.

My session, What Does a Writer Do Anyway?, is on Tuesday December 8th at 3:35 as part of the Art / Design / Audio stream.

What does a writer do anyway?

Telling stories is an essential part of our cultural fabric, but in the face of a new medium, one in which mechanics, rules, and play are at the heart of the audience experience, we’re still learning how to work the thousands of years of accumulated knowledge in writing and storytelling to our best advantage.

An often-neglected discipline in video games, this session will look at the skills and craft that writers use when approaching storytelling, dialogue, structure, and characterisation, and how to apply those to video games without losing the particular strengths of the medium.  By dissecting the craft of writing, it will demonstrate the thought processes behind story creation, what does and doesn’t work within the medium of games, and why some of those boundaries exist.  It will also show how some of those core concepts are applicable to games without stories, informing mechanic, level, and systems design.

Looking to the future, the session will lastly speculate on the marriage of traditional narrative and mechanics, and the sorts of stories that can only be told in the medium of games by exploiting the fundamental gameplay forces of agency, choice, rules, and goals.

Comments
“Well prepared and well presented.”, “Extremely knowledgeable”, “Very knowledgeable with first hand industry experience.”, “Relevant and thought provoking”, “Superb analysis of video games. My game play will improve dramatically with these tips’, “Easy to understand – simple”, “Very engaging”

Vitta Conference 2008 – From Designer to Teacher and Back Again

Comments
“very knowledgeable about topic”, “Good knowledge, some useful info to pass onto the students”, “Good to know where students can head in gaming; I found it very relaxed”, “A candid presenter”, “very good and easy to listen to”, “Really interesting”, “very IT specific, but great for game designers”

Game Connect Asia Pacific 2008 – Towards a Theory of Everything

“The next session I popped into Paul Callaghan’s talk on a theory of everything. He is the head of games design at AIE Melbourne and thought it would be interesting to find out a theory on everything. He was quite entertaining and talked about how a theory can be applied to all things of ‘play’ while he said play isn’t the correct word for it; it was the only thing he could think of that could be used to best describe it. He talked about that in almost everything we do we test the world, build a hypothesis, test this within the world and the re-evaluate and redefine the hypothesis. But in certain worlds there are rules we know and are aware of, or quickly learn, so we are always testing identities and ‘playing’. He mentions that we are still exploring the grammar behind the games design world and that his theory is evolving with that.”

From Games On Net

In the meantime, this site is still under construction, but you can visit some of the sections that were easier to put together than others:

Appearances

One of the reasons I wanted to start this site was to bring together a lot of the random stuff floating around the web that I’d been involved with. This page contains videos of my appearances on ABC2 and at Freeplay.

Conferences & Presentations

Over the years, I’ve done a bunch of conference presentations.  Here’s where you can find the details of the sessions and copies of the presentations.  Most of the new ones are in .mov format because I bought a mac and fell in love with Keynote.

Game Projects – Old Projects – Current Projects

Here you can find details of what I’m working on now and what I’ve worked on in the past.  Sadly, the current project page is a bit quiet because everything’s early days.

Writing

This is where you can find samples of my personal writing.  It’s a little sparse just now because I’ve been focusing on a novel for the past few years.  That should change during 2009.