Icarus Studios News

One of the coolest things about running a virtual world is the concept of emergent play: given enough world elements and enough users, very fun games emerge that the developers never would have thought of when they created the original items. In a lot of worlds, this is a design goal: toys, physics-objects, user-generated content, and placeable items are all added to the world to encourage the players to use them in interesting (but hopefully family friendly) ways.

However, not deliberately including opportunities for emergent play can just raise the bar for player creativity.

The Icarus Base Editor is a database management tool that allows content information to be entered into a virtual world without any need of programming skills. (Which is good, because I have none. I’m a writer and editor for virtual worlds here at Icarus Studios.) However, even a novice like me was able to use a number of different templates (all of which have a similar and easily understood design) that comprise the Icarus Base Editor to create zombies for a game property of ours entitled Fallen Earth. (I should state that the Base Editor can also create items, NPCs [non-player characters], system events, and complex dialog trees—all with a minimum of effort. But talking about making zombies is much more fun for me.)

Icarus Studios is a leading creator of technology for the online gaming and the virtual world space. We are looking for experienced C++ programmers who are excited about developing new technologies and empowering scenario designers to develop high end virtual worlds.

Current development efforts include:

• Cutting Edge 3D Graphics Engine development
• Graphical Tools development for game designers (Carvers, scenario design, model viewers)
• iPhone Development
• Serious Games / Simulators

Come be a part of our team!

Senior Software Engineer

The Sr. Software Engineer is a key member of the engineering team. In addition to the technical responsibilities and requirements, the Sr. Software Engineer is a highly motivated, organized individual with a sharp eye for detail and quality. Icarus Studios is looking for highly talented individuals who are excited by the opportunity to innovate and create new technologies. Qualified candidates are disciplined, professional and comfortable with a constant flow of new work.

We offer competitive salary and benefits, as well as a high energy, fun work environment.

What does it mean to talk about a New Media market? Is it about creatively combining present market models to reveal a new kind of service? Easier said than done! Some people focus on real world models while some push ahead to Internet-only models, but there is a time and a place for using either, and a time for a combination. Combining them in a way that will grow with Internet culture, however, isn't as easy as simply digitizing assets.

The recent experimentation with procedural content in games has been epitomized by Spore. In Spore, even the music is a procedure. By using procedural content, the goal is to reduce development time and/or file sizes for game resources such as art, music, terrain, and models. In its simplest form, instead of designing a single work of art, a programmer creates a function that can create a wide variety of art based on small seed values. Instead of hand-crafting an involved map for a level, the designer tries different seed values until a map looks good, then concentrates on the highlights. Instead of storing a large texture file in the game directory, the game can create the texture from the much smaller seed value only when it’s needed. Everyone is a winner.

(Continued from Part 1)

Sound effects linked to models aren’t the only thing we can test before loading a character into a game. Environmental factors that impact a character, such as lighting or particle effects, can also be simulated. Obviously, in any given online game, both objects and characters can possess special effect capabilities—like having fireballs shoot out of their palms or glowing after they drink a healing potion, or something. The Icarus Particle Editor enables the creation and modification of both 2D and 3D particle effects—such as smoke, fire, bullet impacts, fireworks, floating bubbles, confetti, and explosions, just to name a few. Lighting, created in Level Editor (to be discussed in a later post), and particle effects can both be seen in Character Prep, allowing the designer to see how well the model holds up under different conditions and animated sequences. For instance, if that dapper young man running around with his gun were to get shot, I could mimic the bullet impact and blood splatter and make sure it looked realistic.

Anyone remember those scenes in Clash of the Titans where the gods would take a lump of clay and fashion human beings however they saw fit then stick them on little shelves in Mt. Olympus’ coliseum until it was time to make them fight or die or mutilate them or whatever? Well, game designers—who are generally of mighty ilk but not exactly members of any pantheons—undergo a bit more involved process when designing people for online games. Luckily, at Icarus, we have developed several tool sets that help to make diverse human (and humanoid) characters.

(Continued from Part 2)

The word “avatar” has some pretty heavy connotations—the term definitely comes with plenty of baggage. Once upon a time, an avatar literally meant “an embodiment (as of a concept or philosophy) often in a person.” These days, it’s the term for “an electronic image that represents and is manipulated by a computer user.” The power of the word sort of implies that every programmable or visible change the user makes while in a digitized environment is a psychological (or philosophical) representation of themselves, no matter what their intentions might have actually been. Is the cursor I'm using to write this post a psychological representation of me?

(Continued from Part 1)

When I read a novel, I can privately control the fictional world as it unfolds in my mind’s eye; as this happens entirely in my own imagination, there are no other egos to offend or work around. There are no rules, laws, or taboos to interfere with what I envision. I can open my mind, enter that world, and regardless of whether I accept the author’s premise of the canonical plot, I can create any number of unique ideas about what goes on outside of the main storyline. When reading, I can tailor the previously created world to match my own preferences—without having to consult or interact with anyone else who might be affected by my choices.

When discussing what games have to offer us, often people say, “Games offer the chance to see something new, explore another place, and become someone else...” And that’s a very romantic idea; but, do games really provide the opportunity to reinvent ourselves? For any amount of time?

Second Life 

(Continued from Part 1) 

When writing about developments in the virtual worlds/MMO industry, there are two subjects that are almost impossible to avoid: World of Warcraft (WoW) and Second Life. They dominate the news about simulated environments, and, thus, it’s very easy to use them as points of reference when discussing other virtual worlds. Since we’re going to be mentioning them, it’s worth an entry to explain why we consider them relevant. This week, we talk about Second Life.