HK-47, Puzzle Pirates - Big Hits at GDC Awards

Thanks to Frictionless Insight for its article recounting the proceedings of the 2004 Game Developers Choice and Independent Games Festival Awards, which were held last night in San Jose. Multiple GDC Award winners included Call Of Duty and Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time, and Savage: The Battle for Newerth won the IGF independent game award, with Oasis triumphing in the Web/downloadable category. Among the highlights: "When the Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates team moved to the stage to accept the [IGF Web/Downloadable Audience Choice] award, dressed as buccaneers, they basked in the most thunderous applause of the night", and the piece also notes that "...the audience was [almost equally] vocal when HK-47 (from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic) took the award for [GDC] Original Game Character of the Year." There's further coverage of the events over at GameSpy.

Comments

Re:StarWars?

[Lightwarrior]

RTFM.

"...HK-47 (from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic) took the award for [GDC] Original Game Character of the Year."

That'd be a CHARACTER in a Star Wars game. Can you think of another amnesiac droid serial killer, who calls humans meatbags? HK-47 add a huge amount of feeling to KotOR, with his disdain for living creatures and his sordid past. His translation of the Sand People alone was priceless.

-lw

Prince of Persia was Robbed

[Anonymous Coward]

POP clearly deserved "Game of the Year". With KOTOR was a great game it had some faults and a fair ammount of bugs in the release.

Prince of Persia is the most polished and well put together game I have ever played. The game is visually stunning, the control scheme flawless, and a fantastic story that really ties the whole thing together.

Re:Prince of Persia was Robbed

[MikeyNg]

So since Ninja Gaiden is a better game than PoP, it should win GOTY hands-down this year, then, huh?

Re:Prince of Persia was Robbed

[Jagasian]

Give me a break. Prince of Persian (POP) had its share of bugs too. I have an XBOX save game for POP where the girl somehow got stuck really far behind, and the prince will be talking to her, but she is about 2 miles away so you can't hear her. It looks really funny because he is talking to thin air. The bug is bad because it ruins your save game.

It happened about 25% of the way through the game, and I didn't notice it was a bug until far later. I mean, there are times where you are supposed to separate from the girl... AND there are times when the prince talks to himself... so after a relatively long time and several save points later... I realize that the prince isn't talking to himself, but instead he is talking to the girl who is not there.

It wasn't long after that that the game would randomly stop with the prince saying "no no no, it didn't happen like that". Which only happens when either the prince or the girl dies. I couldn't retrace my steps because there are parts in the game where you can't backtrack because of the level design...

So yeah, lost allot of advancement through the game and had to reload a save game from a ways back. Ever since that monster of a bug, I would actually get worried when the prince got separated from the girl... not because of the story line, but because I was worried about the mother of all bugs returning to ruin yet another save game.

If that is polish, I am glad that I don't buy many new games these days. Also note that this bug didn't happen because of some weird thing I did as a player... I just played in a very normal way. The girl just got separated from me somewhere along the way... probably some broken pathing thing or something.

Re:StarWars?

[the Man in Black]

Yeah, HK-47 provided more than one actual "laugh out loud" moment for me during that game.

Tusken Chief: (unintelligible hooting)
HK-47: The Chief demands you state your reasons for coming here. Shall I obliterate him now, master?

I'm paraphrasing, but that's pretty much how the convo went. Great stuff, and the reason why I tried to take HK with me out of the Ebon Hawk whenever possible.

What a GOOD game.

Re:StarWars?

[Nikkos]

"Can you think of another amnesiac droid serial killer, who calls humans meatbags? "

In a game? No, but he sounds quite a bit like Mr. Gordons from "The Destroyer" series of novels.

Nikkos.

Puzzle Pirates

[BlueCup]

Hooray for Puzzle Pirates =D good to know that they're getting the recognition they deserve. I've played my fair share of mass multiplayer games and for the most part, and they're all the same, except for this one =D just... needs to be less addictive =(

Re:Puzzle Pirates

[amorsen]

It also needs better Terms of Service. Listening in on private conversations is unacceptable for me.

Re:Puzzle Pirates

[Dehumanizer]

Indeed, Puzzle Pirates is excellent. Loving it so far.

My only problem with it is that there's a LOT of lag for me. Now, I live in Portugal (that's west of Spain :)), but I can play every other MMORPG (played lots, like Asheron's Call, Earth & Beyond, Ultima Online, Everquest, DAOC) with virtually no lag at all.

In PP, walking through town (without using the map) is a chore.

Oh well... maybe it'll get better in the future.

Yay for HK-47.

[mrseigen]

That should teach those meatbags to mess with robots for awhile.

Funny...

[Dehumanizer]

... how the Gamespy article doesn't mention Puzzle Pirates at all. :(

Re:StarWars?

[Dehumanizer]

Indeed... and now, the Planescape:Torment guys are doing the sequel. Promising...

Re:StarWars?

[CoffeeJedi]

yes, yes i can... his name is Bender .....skin tube

Excuse me? what Pirates?

[evil-osm]

An avid fan of the game (PP), however the description that IGF gave Puzzle Pirates was leaving me question wether or not I missed an island of debauchery or something like that.

A player-driven economy, hot pirate on pirate action, and political intrigue fill out this....

Mer...

[JMZero]

Prince of Persia is the most polished and well put together game I have ever played. The game is visually stunning, the control scheme flawless, and a fantastic story that really ties the whole thing together

It was indeed a very solid game. All the things you mention about it are good - but it did have some problems, chiefly in terms of variety and replayability.

There was, what, 5 or 6 different enemies in the whole game? And how much did those enemies differ from one another? There was pretty much "ones that let you vault over them", "ones that you bounced off walls to kill", and pointless birds/bats.

90% of the difficulty (which there wasn't much of) in the game was either timing the back-and-forth walljumps or in the first fight with your father (which you do before you have a good handle on the controls).

That said, it had a lot of things going for it - excellent control, camera, story, and general polish. I might even call it game of the year - a dead heat with Wind Waker - but I can understand those who don't like it. It's an "experience once" sort of game, and it just isn't very long.

Re:Mer...

[Maserati]

Notice that the combat was good enough to leave you wanting more things to fight ? There are legitimate gameplay flaws that you do point out, but it wasn't a fighting game so the designers clearly made their compromises there. Personally, I say they hire *bunch* of animators and do a full-on kung fu game with the engine. Maybe something with guns. Has anyone played both PoP and Enter the Matrix ? Yeah, that's what I'm thinking too. PoP makes ETM look a lot worse than it was, especially on PS2. [1]

The graphics programming was fantastic and rightly won an award. They went for simple everywhere they could in the design of the look, a lot of the models are lower-poly and more coarsely textured than you remmeber them as because the animation is spot on. And I didn't know you could get graphics like that out of a PS2, it's an engine that cries out to be used in other games, and not just the sequel. I

The various slo-mo elements and rewind worked well and alleviated a lot of the frustration common in platformers - and looks cooler than taking a continue. They built the story to justify slo-mo, but I can't fault them for how they executed on it. Playing with time even follows PoP tradition - the first game had a time limit.

But KoTOR is the first-ever Star Wars RPG. And it's from BioWare. It won Game of the Year. We have to accept the inevitable outcome.

[1] For the love of God have the Need for Speed people do the driving sections. Or somebody. I'm dreaming.

Re:StarWars?

[GoogleBot]

Hey, not just the droids... Don't forget us Sentient AIs, too!

Damn meatbags...

Congratulations to S2Games

[kilthas]

Just wanted to give a shout out to S2Games for their game, Savage. Some or all of you may or may not be aware of this game, but it's basically been my game of choice since it arrived. Built from the start to support Linux and Windows, using their own (open-source) engine, and with a respectable community, it's nice to see them get the kudos they deserve. Granted, some may be quick to point other games which have attempted the same concept (RTS + FPS teamplay), but S2 did it and did it well. Now, just to hope the modding community becomes a bit more active with the SDK becoming available. Kil

Re:Congratulations to S2Games

[Jerrith]

I was there as well, and it was great to see Savage do so well. (It's also one of my favorite games.)

One clarification, their engine isn't open source, though it uses some open source libraries.

Remember, they had a team of just 7 people too. :)

Re:Congratulations to S2Games

[kilthas]

Ah, my mistake. Could have sworn I heard them state it was open source at some point after release when someone had a modding question. My mistake.

And yes, how could I forget to mention they had such a small team. I think that was what amazed me most. It didn't feel like a breakout venture from a tiny company. It felt like a much more polished production.

Kil

Re:StarWars?

[Lightwarrior]

> yes, yes i can... his name is Bender .....skin tube

Bender was an amnesiac? And he *actually* killed folk? Bender was never really dangerous, unless you got him near a can opener.

Similar, sure - robots with attitude. But not the same.

-lw

Re:StarWars?

[Danse]

I just finished KoTOR for the first time a couple days ago. HK-47 was my favorite character :) The translations were great and I just loved his occaisional interjections and overall attitude. After I install my new motherboard and reload, I'm going to play it again and go evil this time >:>

GDC Awards v. VGA (SpikeTV)

[superultra]

I was reading Gamespy's short summary, and I realized that I would've really liked to have been there or to have watched it. I then realized that SpikeTV also tried something along these lines, only with celebrities instead of video game designers, but still somehow about video games. And GDC was funnier, which is to say they made one borrowed attempt at video game humor (Strongbad) that worked. By that I mean one funnier moment more than the VGA.

So, a word to the wise, or, instead, to the video gaming executives at SpikeTV who peruse slashdot (sarcasm intended): try video taping GDC next year, only leave Spade and the troupe behind and bring just two video cameras.

Re:StarWars?

[the Man in Black]

You'll love it. Especially towards the end. The Evil path on whatever planet that was with the Old Ones is much more...satisfying.

I like to think of myself as a pretty callous individual, but even I was moved at some of the decisions are available to make. The writers apparently said "Why be a little evil when you can go balls out evil?" I'm surprised there were no puppy-kicking side quests.

Puzzle Pirates Represent!

[Zonk]

I am so glad the Puzzle Pirates team won the recognition they so richly deserve. For those of you not down with the Pirate, Three Rings' game Puzzle Pirates is an online massively multiplayer game (or, in this case, a "mmoarrrrpg") where you take on the role of a character in a world populated with islands. Within this world, your piratical character can take jobs on Merchant ships, Navy boats, and (most fun of all) fellow-pirate crewed ships. On the ships you take on an individual job, such as bilging, carpentry, sailing, or gunnery. Each of these jobs is simulated through the use of (you guessed it) a puzzle. These fun and entertaining mini-games allow you to contribute to your crew, gain booty (no, not that kind of booty), and increase your reputation with the Pirates of the seas. An incredibly fun game with none of the usual hangups or problems inherent in MMOGs.

For more on pirates, check out Talking like a pirate is fun, but annoys people, a writeup I did a long time ago. Includes a link to a most excellent techno mix of the writeup done by a friend of mine.

ARR!

Re:StarWars?

[Lightwarrior]

Ok, why in the hell was the parent modded Offtopic? It's directly replying to the post that said HK-47 - the character from Knights of the Old Republic who received "Original Game Character of the Year" - was very similar to Bender from Futurama.

I disagree. Bender from Futurama didn't actually kill people, he drank a lot, and was generally an irritant as opposed to deadly. HK-47 showed disdain for living creatures well past the point of only being deragatory, was actively used as an Assassin droid to kill hundreds of people, and doesn't drink.

Sure, they both have referred to humans as fleshy constructs less optimum than robots - but that's where the similarities end.

Moderators, please at least *attempt* to see if the post is relevant before jumping to that conclusion since it doesn't contain the words included in the topic's subject.

And thank you for your time. Meatbag.

-lw

Re:StarWars?

[focitrixilous P]

Nothing to see here, move along...

Re:StarWars?

[MBraynard]

psssh. Funny robots are all the same. HK, Bender, Mr. Data, that little girl on that TV show from the late 80s.

I'm confused

[Snowmit]

According to Gamasutra Prince of Persia won game of the year and Beyond Good and Evil won excellence in writing. But GameSpy says that Bioware won both.

Which article is correct?