ALPHA | NEWS
Editorial KICKING UP DUST
THE FIRST-PERSON shooter has long been the scapegoat of those that criticise the homogenisation of triple-A game design. So who would have thought that an FPS
would step in as the saviour of mainstream console gaming? But it looks like that’s just what’s happening.
Icelandic studio CCP is poised to release Dust 514, a game that isn’t afraid to stake a claim on being the most important console game the world has ever known. Persistantly linked to the infamously intricate PC MMO Eve Online, CCP’s new FPS serves in part as an attempt to align consoles today with where PCs were before the internet changed everything. That’s right – CCP beleive their game can spark a revolution that will shatter and rebuild the console space entirely. As our writer Rob Crossley says in his superb
six-page focus on the game: while other console games simply strive to generate revenue, Dust 514 doesn’t want to do anything less than change the currency of the sector. Yet the console landscape isn’t the only one facing disruption this month. Over in Canada – that controversial mecca for games talent across the globe – there’s a growing sense that the challenges are mounting. Which is why Develop’s new staff writer Craig Chapple has taken a balanced, frank and precise look at the continent’s industry. Another trend impossible to ignore as winter looms is the rush by games engines to support Flash in the wake of Adobe’s 3D reworking of the 15-year-old platform. Both Unity and Epic are ready to offer the
ability to develop for Flash, and they both appear in this issue to explain why they’re doing it. And on this very page, there’s the debut of a
tiny PC with ambitions so big they rival CCP’s. Without doubt, it’s an exciting time to don the Develop editor cap for the first time.
Will Freeman
will.freeman@
intentmedia.co.uk
RASPBERRY PI is a computer the size of a USB stick that it is hoped will breed a generation of tech-literate creatives, and next month the developer units go on sale. Remarkably small and inexpensive, the diminutive platform is the creation of a collective of experts from a range of backgrounds with one common interest; returning the teaching of computer science to its former glory. There are many motivations for reinstating the school subject muscled out by ICT teaching in the UK in the late 1990s. A computer science literate generation will benefit tech and creative industries the world over, will be better trained for an increasingly computerised future, and might even make some video games that define the sector in ten or 20 years. Perhaps the most well-kown member of
the Raspberry Pi Foundation is David Braben, co-writer of Elite and founder of Frontier, the studio behind Kinectimals and Lost Winds.
OFFICE SPACE Braben’s belief that computer science as a subject is under-represented lead him to join a group called Computers in Schools. The body is a collective of teachers and
06 | NOVEMBER 2011
professionals dismayed by the demise of education focused on programming and creative computer use. “At Frontier we noticed in the mid-2000s that the number of graduates applying to us had dropped off,” explains Braben. “Of course, I wondered if it was just us, so I contacted various people in universities who I know through my roles on various advisory boards at different educational bodies. “They told me that privately it was even
worse for them, because the number of computer science admissions had dropped hugely, some of them down by a factor of four. That's not little; that's a huge drop. I started to think it couldn't be a coincidence.” Concerned by how the trend would affect the games industry and its contemporaries, Braben found himself involved in the design and creation of Raspberry Pi, which will be available to buy for as little as $25. The unit itself, set to initially be available in
two different configurations, is a remarkable piece of kit. While the final size is yet to be confirmed, the device sits easily in the palm of the hand, can output both HDMI and SD signals, accepts USB, and, with the addition of a screen, mouse and keyboard, offers a full computer at an incredibly low price.
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