Cave to talk at GDC 2012

[spadgy]

Cave are talking at Game Developers Conference 2012 in San Francisco in March.

More specifically, in a talk titled 'Retro and Japanese Social Games on Smartphones', Mikio Watanabe is to: "describe the thoughts and difficulties Cave had in adapting their retro-style games for the new wave of smartphones. He will also discuss the current Japanese mobile social games business, and talk about what overseas companies should be careful of when entering the Japanese market."

Hopefully we'll learn some nuggets of info on their shmups.

Just a heads up for anyone going to GDC. I'll be there with a notepad in hand, so will feed back here.

See you on the front row?

[JBueno MD]

I was about to say that hopefully we see an insightful keynote on STG development in the arcade environment, but leave disappointed after reading this is about their mobile affairs. Still should be interesting.

[Kollision]

so shmuppers will be left with crumbs, as expected

:sigh:

[DrTrouserPlank]

Am I the only person who doesn't own a smartphone or a vita or any of that other rubbish?

[kid aphex]

Am I the only person who doesn't own a smartphone or a vita or any of that other rubbish?

No, but who fucking cares?
The world moves on even if you don't.

[kernow]

Cave are talking at Game Developers Conference 2012 in San Francisco in March.

More specifically, in a talk titled 'Retro and Japanese Social Games on Smartphones'

[IseeThings]

Am I the only person who doesn't own a smartphone or a vita or any of that other rubbish?

Nope, I'll stick with what I've always said, only dumb people need smart phones.

I have a good old 'dumb' phone, I can drop it, it still works, the battery lasts for weeks, and it does everything I need. Don't see the point in anything more fancy, never have, probably never will. Don't understand why people want a phone with 2 day battery life, and usually less than that because they also use it for to play games / mp3s which as a result means it dies on them when they actually need to use it as a phone, if they can get reception anyway which seems far worse as a whole.

But people seem to like them *shrug*

[dunpeal2064]

Wow Spadgy, are you flying all the way to San Fransisco for this? Shoot, even though I don't own an iphone or smartphone, I'm tempted to show up at this.

[AntiFritz]

Am I the only person who doesn't own a smartphone or a vita or any of that other rubbish?

Nope, my phone is years old and can't even surf the internet well, and I have no interest in the vita.

[Barrakketh]

Don't understand why people want a phone with 2 day battery life

That depends on how you use it. More importantly, how often are you unable to charge your phone? Unless you like camping or something (even then, campsites seem to have outlets unless you're out on a mountain or otherwise far away from civilization) I don't see why battery life would be a limiting issue unless you're playing games or talking for hours on end every day and it dies before bedtime.

But people seem to like them *shrug*

Things I like about/use my smartphone for:

• GPS. It doesn't replace a dedicated unit (smart phones aren't weather resistant enough for motorcycle use, and I do ride when its raining), but still useful when driving in an area you aren't familiar with.
• Light web browsing. If you're out shopping and a place is sold out of something, you can find other stores that carry it and get their number and/or location (ties in with GPS)
• SSH client. If I need to log into a server (or my home PC) to do stuff, this is how I do it. It doesn't matter if I'm shuffling files around, updating my Arch Linux install and re-building my applications (stuff like libav and x264 I pull from git, its mostly automated), or queuing up a torrent, it's still handy and gets shit done when I'm not home.

[alastair jack]

Never heard Cave talk about iphone stuff before, should be extremely exciting!

[Elixir]

Cave are talking at Game Developers Conference 2012 in San Francisco in March.

More specifically, in a talk titled 'Retro and Japanese Social Games on Smartphones', Mikio Watanabe is to: "describe the thoughts and difficulties Cave had in adapting their retro-style games for the new wave of smartphones. He will also discuss the current Japanese mobile social games business, and talk about what overseas companies should be careful of when entering the Japanese market."

Hopefully we'll learn some nuggets of info on their shmups.

Just a heads up for anyone going to GDC. I'll be there with a notepad in hand, so will feed back here.

See you on the front row?

Companies have tried to enter the Japanese smartphone market? If anything, they have to cater to us. Not the other way around.

Massive brand loyalty and stealth marketing prevent other companies even trying.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Should be an interesting forum with what Cave has to say.

Spadgy, could you ask them if they have any plans to do a DDP-SDOJ Black Label variant PCB kit release? Whatever little new arcade PCB info they wish to share (or not) would be nice to know.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[NTSC-J]

Spadgy, could you ask them if they have any plans to do a DDP-SDOJ Black Label variant PCB kit release?

Not sure if serious...

[kidpanda]

yea, a dev talking about smartphone business... whats the no 1 selling phone there now? the jp business model is old and needs to update itself...im just saying, and no i dont think activision is a better company as they suck too :/

[Skykid]

Cave are talking at Game Developers Conference 2012 in San Francisco in March.

More specifically, in a talk titled 'Retro and Japanese Social Games on Smartphones'

Haha!

[monouchi]

Good luck spadgy.
Will see if I can join the crew from my company that will go to GDC.

[gs68]

> social gaming
> uhhh no thanks CAVE

Spadgy if you're gonna be in the Bay Area, might as well drop into Game Center and their regularly-rotated lineup of shmups, if time permits

Or at least SouthTown Arcade, although I don't know what your opinion is of Border Down.

[ancestral-knowledge]

Am I the only person who doesn't own a smartphone or a vita or any of that other rubbish?

Nope, my phone is years old and can't even surf the internet well, and I have no interest in the vita.

Here too. Funny thing is I develop apps for the Apple Appstore and for the android market but i use an ancient black and white nokia mobile that runs 2 weeks without recharging and if it falls on the ground i don't even care. i fucking hate modern cellphones and all that (ANTI)social media bullshit that automatically comes with it nowadays. Oh and my 5 year old mini sony camera still makes WAY better images than an iphone 4. don't get me even startet on hendhelds...

these 2 types of devices are somewhat the reason games are becoming dumber and dumber...oh yeah and the people using them too... just because you can google things on your fucking cellphone doesn't mean you are smarter one bit. And if i look at the people owning an iphone 4 for example i don't even wanna buy it because i don't want to have any kind of connection to these kind of people. They are mostly retards who defend their tiny little (weeners) devices like a religious fanatic. it worries me that the world is going down the dump and all people worry about is when the new iphone 5 comes out.
arrrgghhhh.... i went to a restaurant one day with my girlfriend and we saw a couple sitting in a corner and eating while doing shit on their cellphones.... in a fucking retaurant.... they were not even talking to each other besides the occasional "hey do you know that app that can do derp-di-derp?"....

sry for the rant

[spadgy]

Wow Spadgy, are you flying all the way to San Fransisco for this? Shoot, even though I don't own an iphone or smartphone, I'm tempted to show up at this.

I'm not quite that much of a fanboy yet! One day! In seriousness, I go to GDC every year for work, as it creates so much content for the magazine I'm editor of (a trade mag focused purely on games development), so the Cave talk will be one of the dozens of sessions and meetings I attend that week (I also just fixed a Reisuke Ishida interview!).

And I'll remain optimistic about what they might say and decide how I feel when they say it. I've had lots of fun playing Cave (and other games) on iOS. They might not be the same as the arcade versions, but I feel that's the point. It diversifies the shmup genre, potentially appealing to more people and more playing environments. I play shmups at a public arcade every weekend, and that's my preferred format, for sure, but I also spend two hours a day on public transport for my commute, and things like Mushi iOS have made that a lot more fun! It's a damn site easier to get my iPad on a train than a cab or console; that's for sure. So there are advantages.

I still have a crappy black and white phone, so I definitely warm to the 'who needs more than a basic phone?' argument, but I also have and iPad and Vita. The more variety of platforms the better, right? You don't have to own the ones you don't warm to, so I don't get the negativity towards them. They all produce interactive sound and light, so with good game design they all have the potential to be great. It can still be good and just not for you. I guess you could argue that more platforms thin the quality base of released software, but I don't subscribe to that.

I don't warm to social gaming (or online console multiplayer) myself to be honest, but it still deserves a chance, and I'm still open minded to finding out there's some great game experiences there. And if they aren't for me, at least other people are enjoy the medium that is gaming. The more diverse the medium, the more numerous the numbers of people playing, and the more potential money and opportunity there is for development, which benefits almost every type of video game experience, genre and platform.

I've also played some awful iOS and social games, but show me a system without a load of awful games and I'll show you my self-illustrated sketches of me and Skykid sharing romantic moments.

Spadgy if you're gonna be in the Bay Area, might as well drop into Game Center and their regularly-rotated lineup of shmups, if time permits

Or at least SouthTown Arcade, although I don't know what your opinion is of Border Down.

Thanks for the tips; time will be short, but I'll try!

Good luck spadgy.
Will see if I can join the crew from my company that will go to GDC.

Wicked! Let me know.

[Skykid]

> social gaming
> uhhh no thanks CAVE

Spadgy if you're gonna be in the Bay Area, might as well drop into Game Center and their regularly-rotated lineup of shmups, if time permits

That place looks great! I wanna go.

[cools]

so I don't get the negativity towards them.

You must be new here.

I used to carry around a PDA (organiser and browsing, occasional games), a phone and an MP3 player constantly. As smartphones have got better I can get what I need from a single device, and if I know I'm going to be making heavy use of it I'll carry a small mains charger around with me. It's still lighter than the older method.

Don't quite understand the drive towards touchscreen only, huge screen devices but that's just personal preference.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

I've also played some awful iOS and social games, but show me a system without a load of awful games and I'll show you my self-illustrated sketches of me and Skykid sharing romantic moments.

How about the Vita? its new so there isnt many games for it.

Picture pls! If you make it into a boys love scat manga with Gaijin Punch and Cullian included ild even pay for it

(BTW make Cullian the bitch, since he likes to wear skirts)

[spadgy]

I've also played some awful iOS and social games, but show me a system without a load of awful games and I'll show you my self-illustrated sketches of me and Skykid sharing romantic moments.

How about the Vita? its new so there isnt many games for it.

I guess my perspective is blurred by being games press. I've had a PAL Vita for about six weeks I think, and have 15 - 20 games for it. I love it, but believe me, they aren't all good!

In a lame segue trying to get a little more on topic, maybe we'll hear more about Cave's Vita plans at GDC. I know there's some stuff to hear coming at some point.

EDIT: As for the sketches of me and Skykid, its more stuff like us running hand-in-hand on the beach, us skipping through a meadow laughing, and us dashing through the woods naked while grimacing; classic romantic stuff. Nothing saucy.

[Skykid]

EDIT: As for the sketches of me and Skykid, its more stuff like us running hand-in-hand on the beach, us skipping through a meadow laughing, and us dashing through the woods naked while grimacing; classic romantic stuff. Nothing saucy.

Except that one in the farmer's barn.

[neorichieb1971]

My phone is stamp proof.. Even if I try to stamp on it the most it does is reset. Therefore I won't be replacing it anytime soon.

Anyway, GDC 2012?

[DJ Incompetent]

Smartphones are just a silly name to call these things.

It's a borderline laptop that happens to make phone calls. It's the sum of all its features that make the 1-day battery worth it; invaluable things like GPS, scheduler, notetaker, search, autodownloading podcasts or tv, dictation-to-text, and the RSS news.

Calls are usually the last thing used on this for people who know how to use smartphones proper.

But you're right, many people don't. Hay look at my fart app??

[gs68]

The only game I play on my phone and care for is Tapsonic. Would be a fantastic game if it weren't for the stupid "PRESS THIS BUTTON FOR SCORE MULTIPLIER" mechanic (if I wanted that I will play DOJ and DFK, not a fucking rhythm game), the annoying unlock system, and didn't have timing windows the width of Madoka Kaname's face.

[Zorator]

I have an old fashioned phone and it seems like I have to charge it at least every three days, whenever I'm actually making calls or sending texts at least.

If you drive through a city with nutty infrastructure like Los Angeles regularly GPS is a huge plus. Someone not as prone to getting lost as I may not see the value in it but GPS functionality seems like the key selling point behind smartphones to me. That and maybe the ability to quickly hop on eBay or Amazon to compare retail store prices with online prices for goods.

Seems like quite a few folks who use smartphones use them mostly for stupid shit or are perpetually distracted by it, but hating new technology or those who use it doesn't make you cool.

Anyway, it's too bad Cave isn't using this spot to talk about something more interesting to the players, but I guess that's kind of the idea behind GDC huh? Maybe next year after SDOJ comes out they can talk about the importance of putting drawings of underwear-clad anime girls in modern arcade games.

[spadgy]

On a side note it appears that while Cave's GDC talk is going on, at the very same time at GDC a load of games dev big names like Cliffy B and Amy Hennig are talking together on stage. I fear I might be the only person going to this one!

I hope more people come, or at least Cave don't mind too much about presenting to an empty room!