Galactica's Moore Keynotes GDC Track

Gamasutra reports that Battlestar Galactica producer Ronald Moore will be keynoting the Vision track at this year's Game Developer Conference. From the article: "'Ronald Moore was presented with the challenge of reinventing a beloved story, which is a challenge often presented to producers of games,' said Jamil Moledina, director, Game Developers Conference. 'His example of creating one of the most brilliant and successful science fiction masterpieces in recent Hollywood history is a perfect inspirational case study to capture the imaginations of the game creation leaders who attend GDC.'"

Comments

Fixed link.

[Grey Ninja]

oops

staying faithful?

[jafac]

I've noticed - and the effect is subtle, that over the past few newer episodes, they seem to be doing more and more "sound effects in space" as well as not putting so much effort into newtonian physics in the space combat scenes. In particular; where the one pilot's gun jams and explodes, and leaves a smoke trail as the ship comes in for a landing. The ship bobs up and down as if it's experiencing aerodynamic effects, rather than venting, and the smoke trails behind the ship as if it's in an atmosphere, instead of expanding outward, and following along with a not-accelerating vehicle.

I'm frankly starting to get a bad feeling about this.

Re:staying faithful?

[tgd]

Wow you totally missed his point.

The point was, the show started off with a very specific style -- call it "dramatized realism" or something. Space scenes were nearly silent, drama came from that confined aural sensation, they focused on real-work physics that actually were significant (the ability to flip around backwards and shoot, etc).

This season the drama has really cranked up, but they've noticably moved away from the sense of realism. Thats a slippery slope. Character development could be next, or any of a dozen other things that make the show so powerful.

Re:staying faithful?

[jafac]

well star trek had sound in space!

so do stargate battles!

and star wars!

. . . which is why I prefer BSG. If BSG becomes just another Star Wars clone, what's the point?

I don't pay a monthly cable/sat bill. I don't get any form of broadcast TV. I pick the shows I like, I either download them from iTMS, or I wait for the DVD (as is the case for BSG). I don't watch TV so that I can fill empty, bored hours that I would otherwise spend reading or doing home improvement projects. I watch TV shows that I like. If I re-activated my satellite service, found myself bored at 9pm one night and decided to veg on the couch, and watch whatever was on, I'd pick a Star Trek rerun over say, Fox News, or Survivor. Just because comparing those two, Star Trek would be the lesser of two (or two-hundred) evils.

But when I go out of my way to watch one show in particular, it's because the producers of that show have gone out of their way to portray their story in a particular way, that I happen to like. Other shows (the ones you mention, in particular) don't do this - and that's why I don't go out of my way (or waste my time) watching them.

I think that if all the cable and satellite vendor networks were suddenly forced to provide a la carte pricing, a lot of other people would suddenly find that they're much more choosy about what they spend their money on watching. And 99% of the crap programming would disappear. Maybe this revenue model wouldn't support the production costs of a show like BSG. Or maybe the competing revenue model (ie. "switch on the commercial, and suck off the teat") has artificially inflated production costs beyond what they otherwise would be, which has made a more meritocracy-based model in tv programming impossible to justify to the spreadsheet jockeys who run the networks. We'll never know until consumers get a real choice.

The Entertainment Industry != Hollywood

[Naikrovek]

BSG is filmed in Toronto. Hardly Hollywood.

Re:The Entertainment Industry != Hollywood

[Xerxus]

Your information is not correct. Battlestar Galactica is filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada along with other Sci-Fi shows like Stargate. http://www.hollywoodnorthreport.com/insidebg.php From Ronald D Moore's commentaries, he primarily does his work in the States in his home while his other executive producers handles all the other things.

Time for a great space shooter

[TheSkepticalOptimist]

Watching BSG reminds me of playing Wing Commander back in the day (except with way better plots and acting). I always thought that the new BSG would be a brilliant platform for a new series of space shooters, a genre of games that have unfortunately fallen away to vapid 3rd person shooters and endless MMORPG's.

Honestly, I think that having a game that allows you to freely explore BSG with plot driven sequences, run space missions, and then actually allow you to land on a planet or board another craft for a 3rd person shooter mission would revolutionize both of these genres.

The problem is that most games based on a TV show or movie tend to be rushed, vapid, and simply a way for a marketing team to make a quick buck without much effort. I honestly think Chris Roberts should pair up with producers and creators of BSG, spend a few years, and create another great space shooter by utilizing the latest in graphics hardware and gaming technology.

I simply miss dogfighting in space, there hasn't been a really good entry in this genre for over a decade. While people are starting to tire of tired sequels to Doom and Quake and even Half life and of course Star Wars themed games, offering a new twist on a lost genre may be a trend that will help sell more games, even if there are a bunch of copycat clones once a successful BSG themed space shooter game is released.

Just, don't rush it out the door. If a BSG game is in the works, take the time to do it right and don't end up like the countless failed TV and movie franchise games that are rushed out the door weeks after (or even before) a movie is released.