Highly-Acclaimed Independent Videogames Developer Insomniac Games Announces ‘Nocturnal Initiative’

Ratchet & Clank(R) and Resistance(TM): Fall of Man Creators Kick Start Industry-Wide Tech Sharing by Providing Free Source Code, Tips and Tutorials.

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 21 /PRNewswire/ — Independent console games developer Insomniac Games, creators of the multimillion-selling Ratchet &Clank(R) and Resistance(TM) franchises, today unveiled a tech-sharing initiative dubbed ‘Nocturnal’ in which it will share elements of its technology source code and presentations free of charge with the worldwide development community.

“The Nocturnal initiative is designed to encourage greater communication and information sharing among the development community because it will ultimately enable us all to create better games at a lower development cost,” said Mike Acton, engine director, Insomniac Games. “And, in the end, it’s all about making great games.”

Nocturnal is being deployed in separate phases. The first phase, Insomniac’s “R&D” site (http://www.insomniacgames.com/tech/techpage.php), launched in August 2007, and has been updated every Wednesday with new presentations, research and articles since. Phase two will be launched shortly, and will open some of Insomniac’s source code under a liberal open-source license. Source code will be documented and downloadable from a wiki at (http://nocturnal.insomniacgames.com). Insomniac will further support Nocturnal by releasing additional source code, research and presentations in the future.

“We feel that the time has come to share what we have learned, and learn from others to improve our solutions to the common problems that present themselves when making a game,” said Geoff Evans, an Insomniac senior tools programmer who helped develop and launch Nocturnal.

Insomniac is allowing developers to use elements of its proprietary third-generation PLAYSTATION(R)3 (PS3(TM)) tools chain source code for any purpose, for free. Source code makes up the technological building blocks that drive software development. It is often closely guarded by companies as they create their technology. However, this has led to many functions and pieces of code being re-written time-and-time again, wasting resources across the industry and ultimately affecting consumers’ gameplay experiences.

“We see Nocturnal as a long-term project that may be valuable for those who want to develop similar technology as us, but without the same effort we needed,” Acton explained. “We also believe Nocturnal may be valuable for our fans to gain insight to our production processes, while communicating our ideas with a larger group gives us the opportunity to generate feedback on our approaches and ultimately improve them.”

Insomniac Games is the first studio developing a third-generation PS3 title with its work on Resistance 2(TM). The company’s second-generation title, Ratchet & Clank Future(R): Tools of Destruction(TM), was acclaimed for its CG-movie-quality graphics upon its release in 2007.

[HD Video] ‘Grand Theft Auto IV’ HD Trailer

GTA IV *HD* “Move Up, Ladies” from subco on Vimeo.

MLB ‘08 The Show demo footage on the PS3

MLB ‘08 The Show – demo footage (1) from Chodite on Vimeo.

Update: THQ’s “UFC Undisputed 2009″ Video Game [DEMO RELEASE]

PRE ORDER TODAY


THQ is hard at work with MMA’s ultimate video game:
THQ’s UFC Undisputed 2009

RELEASE DATE:  05/19/09

Confirmed fighters so far:
Heavyweight:
Antonio Noguiera
Brock Lesnar
Frank Mir
Brandon Vera (LHW)
Gabriel Gonzaga
Cain Velasquez
Cheick Kongo
Eddie Sanchez
Heath Herring
Andrei Arlovski
Mirko Cro Cop
Fabricio Werdum
Tim Sylvia
Mark Coleman
Antoni Hardonk
Justin McCully
Light Heavyweight
Chuck Liddell
Rampage Jackson
Forrest Griffin
Rashad Evans
Tito Ortiz
Keith Jardine
Wanderlei Silva
Shogun Rua
Lyoto Machida
Wilson Gouvea
Houston Alexander
Kazhiro Nakamura
Thiago Silva
Tim Boetsch
Ryan Bader (DLC)
Middleweight
Anderson Silva (LHW)
Rich Franklin (LHW)
Dan Henderson (LHW)
Michael Bisping (LHW)
Kendall Grove
Chris Leben
Jason MacDonald
Nate Marquardt
Drew McFedries
Evan Tanner
Yushin Okami
Martin Kampmann (WW)
Amir Sadollah (WW)
Thales Leites

Welterweight

Georges St. Pierre
Matt Hughes
Matt Serra (LW)
Jon Fitch
Karo Parisyan
Josh Koscheck
Diego Sanchez
Mike Swick (MW)
Marcus Davis
Thiago Alvez
Chris Lytle
Ben Saunders
Josh Burkman
Kyle Bradley
Matt Arroyo
Anthony Johnson

Lightweight
BJ Penn (WW)
Sean Sherk (WW)
Kenny Florian
Roger Huerta
Joe Stevenson
Mac Danzig
Nate Diaz
Spencer Fisher
Tyson Griffin
Gray Maynard
Thiago Tavares
Joe Lauzon
Rich Clementi
Mark Bocek
Hermes Franca
Frankie Edgar
Efrain Escurdao (DLC)

Here’s what Michael Bisping had to say: “I had only been in the country for an hour and the creators of the UFC game THQ, wanted me to go to there studio type thing to get straight to work. This I suppose was good as it gets it out the way, but I was knackered so I may have red eyes on the game. I had to do a full body scan for my image likeness, and then a facial scan, obviously for my facial likeness. In the face scan I had to hold several different emotions for about 30 seconds so they have different facial expressions. This sounds easy, but when you have to hold a huge smile for that long it starts to look very fake. When I looked at the results after I looked like some kind of freak but they assured me that it will look fine on the game (yeah right). Along with a happy expression I had to do confused, angry, sad, bored and surprised. Next it was to a photo shoot for the typical shots but then they wanted to shoot everything to the inside of my legs to my feet and my ass. The attention to detail on the fighter images is going to be amazing and the game is gonna look great. As long as they don’t use my freaky look from the facial scan.”

Update:  04/24/09

UFC Undisputed 2009 Demo released.

I finally had a chance to download the PS3 demo last night and this game rocks.  The graphics and gameplay animations are amazing.  This is sure to be a hit when it comes out on May  19th.

Amazon.com has it available for pre-order.

MLB 08: The Show Demo Impressions

Finally got to play the PS3 demo after having to wait all day. The weird thing was that I knew that the blogs would be chock full of impressions before I started to play, but I wanted to experience it myself before I my impression got “tainted” by anyone else’s take on it.

Graphics: I must say that I am absolutely blown away by the new graphical upgrade, the game is stunning to look at in HD, which definitely ups the overall experience for me. This is what I thought the game should look like on the PS3 last year. I guess I was expecting too much, too soon. It took an extra 10 months, but it was well worth the wait. The players look and move so lifelike, it’s hypnotizing to me. I am still a little “in awe” of it all.

Gameplay: I only got to play through the demo twice so far, but I haven’t seen anything too major in the problem department yet. I was able to rock Beckett for 3 runs in the first inning I played, but then I realized I was playing on Veteran, after I upped it to HOF the AI challenge definitely presented itself. I had one or two instances where things went a little weird, but who’s to say that in itself isn’t realistic (odd things do happen sometimes). nothing that took me out of my MLB ‘08 trance though. I have read some things posted about the incorrect scoring of errors and some bad AI decisions (glitches), but I did not experience either of these in my brief time with the demo (however I admit this makes me nervous). Overall I am extremely happy with how the gameplay feels so far. Definitely feels like a nice improvement over ‘07, which is saying quite a bit IMO.

Presentation: Stellar through & through as usual. Commentary even sounds more seamless and natural to me if that’s possible. I didn’t notice anything in the commentary that was “way off” as someone else put it early in this thread. All the camera angles worked very well for me once I set up my options the way I like. No adjustment was necessary from what I was used to in MLB ‘07, it all felt very familiar (which is definitely a good thing). The “front end” menu screens & options all seem top notch and very easy to figure out. I absolutely LOVE the pitcher & batter analysis stuff, I will use this often.

I guess I could go on, but would anyone care? (rhetorical question, no comments necessary). I am salivating to sink my teeth into the full game on March 4. I feel pretty confident that this game will end up being the “Baseball Bohemath” I was hoping for this year. To think that the game will likely improve exponentially once we get our hands on the upgraded RTTS mode, new player editing features, franchise play, the online community, custom jukebox and everything else….it really blows my mind. A whole hearted THANK YOU goes out to the SCEA MLB team for this incredibly innovative baseball simulation. I can’t begin to imagine what it must be like to work on this game as your job. I’m sure it’s very hard work, but god this would be my dream job….oops sorry, I drifted away there for a moment…anyway, I guess for now I’ll have to do my part by playing MLB ‘08: The Show for ridiculous numbers of hours once it comes out…oh poor (ahem) I mean LUCKY me!