The history of Terminator videogames is spotty at best, much in thanks to the license being abused more than Harry Potter, James Bond and the Ninja Turtles put together. There was a Terminator chess game for gods sake! Then again without that rampant abuse we would have never been able to see the T-800 fight RoboCop, so we can’t always grumble. But enough with fond memories of mediocre games, let’s talk about what’s happening now.

Warner Bros’ Interactive Entertainment, Equity Games Production and Halcyon Games are bringing us the game based on Terminator Salvation, the new Terminator film starring the second sexiest man in cinema, Christian Bale. The game, which is being released in conjunction with the film in May of 2009, will feature the player taking on the role of John Connor, fighting Skynet in the future. The game will be a third-person action game with concentrated armed combat, and will feature new enemies for the Terminator cannon.

The press release tosses around a lot of words like “cinematic” and “fluid control system,” but I just want to be able to shoot robots with big guns. I mean isn’t that what Terminator is all about? This one might have some hope since WBIE usually doesn’t let its franchises go to total waster and developer GRIN, who worked on the PC versions of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter games, has a decent enough track record.

• Halcyon announces new Terminator movie, cross-platform game

• Halcyon announces new Terminator movie, cross-platform game

• Halcyon announces new Terminator movie, cross-platform game

Warner Bros. Interactive, Equity Games, and Halcyon Games announced via a press released this morning that they are currently at work on a videogame tie-in for the movie Terminator Salvation. The movie stars Christan Bale as John Connor along with Moon Bloodgood, Bryce Dallas Howard and rap artist Common (Smokin’ Aces) and is set to be released in May 2009 with the game to be released in conjunction with the launch.

Terminator Salvation: The Videogame will give players the chance to assume the role of John Connor as he battles for survival against the far superior forces of Skynet. This third-person action game developed by GRIN Studios, the creators of Bionic Commando, focuses on concentrated armed combat against all of the Skynet enemies from the film while encountering new enemies specifically designed for the game and “an incredibly fluid and realistic control set”.

While no specific consoles were mentioned, the press release did indicate that it will be made available for all “next-gen consoles” which we can only assume means it will be released for the PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. Gaming Today will be sure to let you know when we find out more.

Now–let us all cross our fingers that both the movie and the videogame will be well worth our time. I did not say to hold your breath, just cross your fingers.

(P.S. - Why is Arnold in this picture?)

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Related Articles at Gaming Today:

• He Said He'd Be Back: New Terminator Game in the Works
• Black Wing Reveals Salvation
• Game Based on "Jumper" Already in the Works
• Ubisoft Bringing Prince of Persia Movie Tie-in Next Summer
• James Cameron Says 3D Game Avatar is Up and Running at Ubisoft

Terminator Salvation - The Videogame - The News Post originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re a fan of doing stuff with that moving picture box in your living room/bedroom/slave cellar besides playing videogames, then you may have seen some little shows called Battlestar Galactica, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, or Eureka. The man responsible for the musical delights in said programs is one Bear McCreary, a self-confessed Mega Man lover who likes to inject a little of the Blue Bomber into his work.

“I’ve actually used a lot of influence from Mega Man in the new season of Eureka. Listen in the first episode of season 3 and you’ll hear some blatantly obvious homages. I’ve introduced a lot of 8-bit NES and Gameboy sounds to my writing template, most of them sampled directly off the old hardware. It’s been a fascinating sound to play around with. I also pulled heavily from 16-bit systems, including the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis for some old-school FM synthesis. One of the things that makes Eureka so much fun is that I get to do this kind of experimentation.”

Being a fan of blips, bleeps and bloops in music makes me happy to hear someone with real cred can nerd all over their aural projects and it’s not only accepted, but it makes into high profile places. It’s only a matter of time now until MTV gives us some shows based around finding the next champion of the chiptune scene, hosted by a Commodore 64 instead of a human. Don’t worry, you wouldn’t really notice a difference.

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Web-based games are seemingly the wave of the future when it comes to marketing to the vital 13 to 28-year-old male demographic, as demonstrated by Fox's Ambush, a web-based, Terminator-themed MMO.

The game is designed to promote Fox Broadcasting's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles-- a surprisingly enjoyable side-story to the wildly successful Terminatorfilm series -- which made its terrestrial television debut earlier this year.

Ambushis a hybrid of traditional online shooters and persistent-world MMO titles. Players choose a side (either the human resistance or deadly Terminator robots), and set out across a two-dimensional game board on a quest to kill as many members of the opposing faction as possible.

Sound simple? It is, very much so, and that may be the game's greatest flaw.

I wish I could offer you readers some hint as to a deeper nuance behind the game, but the above two-sentence description of the title reveals absolutely everything there is to it.

Each side gains points for kills made by one of its members, and aside from pushing the score counter ever-higher, and the bragging rights that come from dominating your foes, there is seemingly no end goal in sight.

Combat too is dreadfully simple. Most MMOs can be boiled down to clicking on enemies until they die, and Ambushtakes that idea to the extreme: All you do in the game is click on your foes and watch them fall, as another tally is added to your score.

The graphics and audio do set an enjoyable mood for the game, but even hardcore fans of the television series or the films will find themselves bored of the hyper-repetitive gaming mechanism almost instantly.

I forced myself to sit through an hour of this clickfest last night in the hopes that some alternate mode of play or new objectives would reveal themselves, but sadly they never did. Our score rose about a hundred points during that timespan, which did fill my avatar's cybernetic heart with cruel glee, but the flesh and blood person controlling Cyberdyne's latest and greatest found himself -- myself -- bored to death.

Then again, that was at 3AM last night. Hoping that maybe the game becomes a bit more enjoyable during daylight hours when more foes are present to catch my hail of bullets, I decided to wait until this afternoon to give it another shot. Sadly, the game seems to have disappeared in the interim, only to be replaced by a "404, File Not Found" error.

I've emailed Fox to see what happened to their marketing effort, but have yet to receive a response. Hopefully they've taken it down to add some additional depth to the title, but believe me when I say you aren't missing much.

Thankfully, the iPhone iteration of Ambushis still available for download from the show's official site, though aside from shrinking the game for the smaller screen and adding portability, the game is exactly the same as the web offering.

If you've got time to kill rent Terminator 2or watch a few episodes of The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Either would be far more enjoyable than this lackluster marketing effort.

Image courtesy Fox

Ambush[ Terminator: The Sarah Connor ChroniclesOfficial Site]

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I have the incredible fortune of being paid to design games. I consider this a privilege, the result of some luck, but at the same time, it’s something I worked for years at achieving.

I wanted to be a game designer from a very young age, and I built up the experience and knowledge that eventually convinced people to hire me to do this.

As someone who worked so hard to break into the industry, I have a somewhat stronger opinion than most about the quality of game designers that get in. I feel that every designer should pay their dues before they're allowed anywhere near game design, and that they should be supremely qualified as students of gaming! Sadly the demand for designers has created a situation in the industry where many people getting into design positions don’t fit the bill.

Game design is one of the most tricky and contentious positions in the game industry. No two companies I have worked with have treated the position of design in the same way. Some designers have producer-type duties/powers, others treat them like artists, and yet others don’t have design positions at all but instead assign the job to a producer, coder or artist.

The only thing that everyone seems to agree on is that you need game designers. The problem is, however, that everyone is a game designer, or thinks they are. What I mean by that is everyone can come up with game design ideas, ideas are a dime a dozen.

Game Designers Suffer From a Credibility Problem

The art of game design is getting the right combination of ideas for a game, communicating them effectively to the team, and executing those ideas through the cycle of development (from conception, to prototyping, to modification, and to the final implementation/cut stage).

The problem is that game designers suffer from a credibility problem. One of the causes of this is the lack of professional accreditation for game design. I realize there are schools now that supposedly “teach” game design, and you can even get a degree in it now, but most developers laugh at the idea of a 23-year-old graduate in game design having any clue about designing a computer game.

The best school for game design remains industry time, at least the years development experience and, at the very minimum, one shipped title. Since most designers working in the industry don’t have a degree in design, many of your peers are reluctant to treat you as an authority in your field, especially since anyone and their dog can come up with game ideas.

There is constant skepticism from colleagues holding computer science degrees and art diplomas about your qualification to make critical decisions about the game. Producers are also prone to “suggest” designs because they have managerial authority, and this makes them sometimes believe that they are better qualified to make design decisions than you are.

Another obstacle to the credibility of game designers is that the field attracts a good degree of charlatanry. The very nature of game design work (mostly ideas driven, no professional qualification necessary) attracts the kind of people who think they can BS their way into the job. Too many of them succeed and thus give designers an even worse name.

For development studios, this can have a fatal effect, and in an effort to improve the reputation of my profession among my peers and help developers hire the right people, I am providing some advice on how to properly interview for game design positions.

Obviously, if the candidate has dozens of shipped AAA titles under their belt and has a proven record, you don’t really need this list. Any candidate who has less than three years in the industry is more difficult to assess, so hopefully these suggestions will help pick the right people.

Ten Ways to Spot a Real Game Designer

The Resume:

1. Look for signs of a deep interest in gaming. The resume should indicate gaming as a way of life, not just a job. Modding experience is especially a key sign. Anyone who wants to be a game designer has an extensive record of making games in their spare time, for free: making levels for favorite games, modding, writing game material, creating board games, RPG background, story writing, etc.

Game designers must be gaming fanatics, not just playing them, but making them in multiple mediums. Beware any game designer that doesn’t play games every spare second of their time or have an extensive history of game making. Look for a long history of gaming interest, not just a sudden career change decision.

Some developers decide that they are tired of being producer/artist/programmer and they want to go into game design. Although experienced, they may not be suitable for design work despite this. Candidates that have a knack for game design usually have demonstrated a passion for game mechanics stretching from early adulthood.

2. Look for a wide variety in gaming taste: A real designer should have a wide interest in games, not just a single format. Look for signs of this wider interest in their hobbies, or ask them what kinds of games they play.

Ask them to describe what they like about each kind of gaming. They should be able to do this at length. I am talking cross platform, boardgames, RPGs, and the classics: cards, chess, backgammon, etc. Good designers borrow the best ideas from all mediums.

3. If the resume lists design credit on shipped games, ask them to describe in detail what their design contribution was to those games. A real designer should be able to go into extensive detail on this, most designers are proud of the work. If the response is vague, you are probably talking to a charlatan.

The Interview:

If you follow these steps in an interview process, you should be able to spot the bull from the real deal:

1. Any designer should be able to describe mechanics in a way that is understandable. If you ask the designer candidate to come up with a sample feature for your game, ask them to describe how the feature will work mechanically. A real designer can describe mathematically and mechanically how a feature will function and be implemented with other game systems, down to every detail.

For example, if a designer talks about how the AI will be able to react to the player’s actions, they should be able to detail exactly how that will work: will it be based on how many “bad behavior” points the player has accumulated, will it depend on triggers set in the dialogue system that will play specific responses, will it be based on a proximity system that the AI checks when the player is within range, assessing the player’s reputation points, shown weapons, clothing, etc.

If a candidate cannot describe probabilities, mathematics, or outline game systems supporting a feature, then they probably are not the real deal.

2. A game designer should be able to explain clearly any of their design ideas. If they cannot make you understand how their idea works, then you should pass. All true designers are able to explain how their ideas work and play to any audience.

That is one of the biggest jobs of game design, translating the feature to the team in a manner that they can understand it and integrate it from their point of view: for coders its codese, for artists its artese, sound language, producer talk, and marketing speak.

3. Making the game is also selling the game. A designer must be able to communicate why the game is fun to you. They have to be able to do this in under a minute and leave you with the unmistakable feeling that they are right. Any designer who doesn’t understand that you are selling it the minute you start making a game, is not a designer.

A designer has to sell to all sections of development, not just the management and marketing departments. Designers have to tell everyone working on the game how fun it’s going to be without a playable version for many months to come.

They are the cheerleaders for the project early on until there is something to show. In an interview, ask the potential candidate to pitch you a favorite game concepts they would like to work on, and if you are not convinced it’s fun, them maybe they are not right for you.

4. A true game designer should be able to describe in detail what they like/dislike about a game. Ask them to talk about their favorite and least favorite games. Ask them to explain why they like/dislike them.

Lackluster opinion in this area is a Bad Sign. So is an answer that amounts to them not liking the color of the interface or the names of some of the characters. They should be able to provide clear and solid reasons for their opinion.

5. Wide areas of interest: A real game designer is inspired by the world around them: books, news events, music, history, movies, art, etc. Depending on the type of game you are interviewing for, this may be one of the most critical questions you can ask.

Ask the candidate to talk about their personal interests, what kind of books they read, movies they watched, any other personal interest them may have. A real designer should have extensive and wide interests, bringing those interests to bear in their design. One question I ask is what their favorite movie is and why. The answer can tell you a lot about the kind of designer they are. A short answer is usually a Bad Sign.

6. Attitude: Beware the Ideas Man. Some people think game design is just about coming up with bright ideas. They fancy themselves the smartest person in the room, therefore employers should be begging to hire them so they can get their hands on their wonderful ideas, which naturally will make millions. This attitude is fairly easy to spot. Stay away!

Another type to stay away from is the Industry Fanboy. A fanboy is someone who is intimately aware of the debates and major conventions of gaming, knows all the top games and the buzz about them, but doesn’t understand game design or have anything original to contribute. They rely on the game press and popular opinion for their understanding of games, basically copying what other people have said and done. They known the canon, but cannot elaborate on it or expand on it themselves.

Some may think this is not such a bad thing, so as an illustration consider someone who has learned a guitar piece by heart: they can play it perfectly, note for note, but if you ask them to interpret the piece by adding a blues feel to it or a jazzy tone, they cannot comply. They known the piece, but they don’t know much about music. Designers can be like that.

Listen to the candidate talk about games and the gaming industry -- if a lot of it sounds familiar, if it sounds straight off the pages of the game press, or if the words are not their own, you are probably dealing with a fanboy.

7. No design survives first contact with code: Ask them to describe an example of a feature change/cut and how they adapted to it. If they worked on a game, they should be able to describe at least one feature in the original design that was cut (for whatever reason), and describe why they chose that feature and how it impacted the rest of the game.

Make sure they go into detail on how the cut impacted other gameplay features, as well as how they took that into account. A real designer should be able to recall in detail the circumstances surrounding such traumatic (but inevitable) events. If they sound like they didn’t care about the feature in the first place, or if don’t have a feature cut story, this could be a bad sign.

Conclusion

Note that none of these 10 points on their own are an indication that the candidate is not suitable. But if you sense that the person in front of you checked off a good number of these warning signs, you might want to reconsider giving them a position on your team.

Of course, even if your candidate checked positive on all of them, there is no guarantee that the person will work out for your project or your culture. There are many factors that make someone a good employee that are beyond the scope of this article, but at least you may have better confidence that they are actually real game designers. Happy hiring.

[O'Connor has worked on several upcoming and shipped titles, including O.R.B, Battlefield Europe, Operation Flashpoint 2. He previously worked as a consultant for his company Iconoclast Games before joining Codemasters in 2006.]