Beam was founded in 1980 and for many years was the biggest computer game developer in Australia.  While I was still at university, I got a part-time job there playtesting games once a week.  Getting paid to play computer games is not the worst way to earn a little extra money.  When I finished university, I started full-time as a computer programmer.  Working at Beam was a lot like being at university – a very casual workplace where lots of people spent their time playing games and then a mad panic as the deadline approached.  Software projects are notorious for going over-budget and missing deadlines.  And computer games are even worse.

(Duke Nukem Forever is perhaps the most infamous example.  It was over 10 years late before the company developing it eventually collapsed).

I worked as a programmer on a platform game (a conversion of Lost Viking 2 from Nintendo to PC), a role-playing game (Alien Earth – it started off as a great project with lots of beautiful artwork but had a cumbersome interface.  Due to time constraints more than half of the plot and missions were cut away, leaving the end product a bit of a mess), a combat racing car game (Dethkarz), a game that never got released (Urban Assault – a multi-player tank game) and did some design work for a Command & Conquer style strategy game (KKND 2 – it went to number one in Germany!) and a role-playing game that never got approved for development.

I quit Beam at the start of 1999 to go backpacking in Europe for 6 months.  Less than a month after I left, Beam was bought out by French publisher Infogrames.  (Whether the company fell apart without me or whether it suddenly became a lot more attractive purchase, I leave you to decide).  The real reason was that the company had tried to act as a publisher as well as a developer and overextended itself.  It changed names and owners over the next 10 years until it was bought by Krome, a Brisbane-based company and became Krome’s Melbourne studio.

Sadly, Krome folded a couple of weeks ago.

Bleak future for Aussie developers

Some Australian games companies had survived by getting contracts from publishers by underbidding American developers, the weak Australian dollar gave them an edge.  But there is always going to be someone cheaper and the dollar’s rise has eroded any pricing advantage compared to American companies.

There are still some Australian game developer success stories.  Firemint is based in Melbourne and their flight simulator was the #1 selling application on the iPhone.

In Tokyo I visited the Tokyo Game Show, the biggest computer games expo in the world.

I visited the expo in 2008 when I lived in Japan.  I used to write for a Japanese tourist magazine so I was able to get a press pass and go on the industry-only days.  That was a lot less crowded than the days the expo is open to the public.

There are lots of games (console, PC, mobile phone, iPad, etc) on display, but most of the games involve a couple of hours of lining up to get to play them.  I didn’t line up.  Instead I wandered around and took lots of photos.

On the public days lots of people come to cosplay – dressing up in elaborate costumes representing characters from computer games and anime.  This year there were even quite a few foreigners who had dressed up.

Apparently the Special Forces recommends Calorie Mate for dieting…

There was a person inside this dog suit.

Japanese motorcycle gangs aren’t quite as scary as the Hell’s Angels…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ezZgAl6aN8

Little Billy’s Letters to famous and infamous people
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/03/10/little-billys-letter.html

Video games as a genre of creative expression
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/digital-life/games/video-games-as-a-genre-of-creative-expression-20100401-rh8z.html
My favorite line is where Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is referred to as “the Citizen Kane of repeatedly shooting people in the face.”

Penguin, Capybara, Monkey Crime Spree
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/7403150/Pet-shop-manager-caught-stealing-penguin-from-Japanese-zoo.html

The top 20 most annoying book reviewer cliches and how to use them all in one meaningless review
http://www.examiner.com/x-562-Book-Examiner~y2009m3d11-The-top-20-most-annoying-book-reviewer-phrases-and-how-to-use-them-all-in-one-meaningless-review