GDC 06: Giving peace a chance

  • By Douglas Wilson, GameSpot
  • Posted Mar 24, 2006 4:38 pm PT

This year's Game Design Challenge saw designers Cliff Bleszinksi, Harvey Smith, and Keita Takahashi try to win the Nobel Peace Prize with a game.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--On Thursday, GDC hosted its third annual Game Design Challenge. The idea is simple: Grab three of the most noted game designers and hand them the task of pitching a game around an unusual theme. In 2004, Will Wright, Warren Spector, and Raph Koster got cozy with the idea of building a game around a love story. In 2005, Wright defended his crown against Ubisoft's Clint Hocking and Lionhead's Peter Molyneux in a challenge to use the license of Emily Dickinson's works. Once again, the challenge this year was playfully eccentric: Design a game that could win the Nobel Peace Prize.

This year, however, the challengers were all Design Challenge newbies: Cliff Bleszinski (Unreal, Gears of War), Harvey Smith (Deux Ex, System Shock), and Keita Takahashi (Katamari Damacy). All three challengers were given several months to develop a design, and then 10 minutes each to present their ideas.

The contest is decided by audience applause and was closer than it had been in previous years. In the end, it was Smith who emerged as the new champion.

Smith's winning idea, Peace Bomb!, was presented as a Nintendo DS game in which players create flash mobs--"crowds of people who assemble suddenly in a public place to do something notable and then disperse." Peace Bomb!, Smith explained, would be "aimed at engendering constructive projects."

Specifically, Smith envisioned that the game would have a "subversive feeling to it" and promote peaceful insurgency projects. Smith cited two politically-charged independent games, Escape from Woomera and Beyond Manzanar, as some of his inspirations.

Smith, who believes that flash mobs represent a kind of "social gaming," stated that his design was motivated by a desire to "engender that spirit of 'let's get together to do something cool.'" He further explained that by spilling into the real world, the game world would "afford players a higher sense of purpose."

Smith described his design as a "minimal graphics social network game." Smith also suggested that players could use the stylus to collect petitions, practicing a kind of activism.

Bleszinski spoke next, presenting his idea for a first-person "empathy game" that places the player in the role of a father. The goal is to keep your family alive and intact, and to "stay physically and emotionally close to your family." Bleszinski claimed, "Our medium has the power to make people think twice about anything."

Bleszinski further proposed that the UN could require world leaders to spend time on the simulation, in order to prevent leaders from detaching themselves from the full implications of their decisions. He imagined that there could be different versions for specific regions and races, and even suggested that the leaders publish their "scores" for accountability.

Contrasting his design with existing police and army simulations, Bleszinski pointed out players of his game would be "meant to sympathize with the civilians" rather than the soldiers, and thereby "put a very human face on civilians caught in war."

Takahashi, who presented last, gave his lecture in a heavy accent, playfully suggesting the title "My English Challenge 2006." Accompanied by humorous videos of fans enacting Katamari Damacy, as well as colorful, animated slides, Takahashi's presentation embodied his lighthearted idealism.

Rather than any one specific design, Takahashi touted the "joy of games" in general. In fact, Takahashi later remarked (through a translator) that he "would give the Nobel Prize to all games."

Takahashi explained that it is "almost a crime" if we fail to let others outside of our circle of friends know about the "simple but silly goal of living for the joy of games." He advocated that we create the necessary conditions to allow the less fortunate to enjoy luxuries such as games, music, and sports. "All we have to do is to spread games all over the world," Takahashi stated, asserting that peace can result from the luxury of playing games.

Eric Zimmerman, CEO of gameLab, moderated the panel for the third year in a row and explained that this year's Design Challenge was "both an homage and an over-the-top spoof" to the GDC 2006 focus on serious games. "Games are another medium we don't tend to think about in the same breath as 'peace,'" Zimmerman prefaced.

Throughout their talks, both Smith and Bleszinski reflected on the ideation process behind the designs. Both designers enumerated a slate of ideas they ultimately rejected. One such idea, Smith's "Empathy Meme," seemed to resonate with Bleszinski's final design. Like Bleszinski, Smith wondered whether games could "humanize the downtrodden by turning them into game avatars." Two more humorous designs included Smith's "Subvert the Nobel Game," in which the player works in PR for an evil corporation, and Bleszinski's proposed puzzle game "that is so addictive that no one goes to war any more."

Will Wright (SimCity, The Sims), the reigning two-time Design Challenge champion, was present in the audience to quite literally crown Smith with a toy tiara.

Wrapping up the ceremonies and the session, Zimmerman urged the audience, "There is no reason why any of the game designs presented today could not be realized. Let them inspire you!"

26 Comments

  • racerx737

    Posted Mar 9, 2007 2:18 pm PT

    interesting idea, though not surprised that it hasn't spilled over to the real gaming world

  • Tenshin

    Posted Mar 28, 2006 6:08 am PT

    You said it, man.

    Anyway, the comments made here represent the industry itself. Some of you are only looking forward to the next Unreal Tournament and Madden NFL, while the rest have been keeping up with the news and can't wait for games like Spore, Guitar Hero and Katamari Damacy.

    I don't mind, anyway. There's so many great software companies out there, I don't think we'll run out of great games anytime soon, whatever the genre, new ideas are always welcome.

  • RazMasters

    Posted Mar 27, 2006 9:21 pm PT

    " they are wasting their time, they should stick to what the games are made for,which is to make money."

    I'm glad that videogames aren't created to (1) tell a story, (2) provide an interactive and therefore constructive entertainment experience, (3) display the artistic talents of artists, writers, programmers and everyone inbetween involved with the projects, and (4) therefore give us yet another enthralling way to escape our otherwise "normal" lives. If they were like that, they would be pretty worthless, wouldn't they?

    I'm happy I can throw cash at companies for completely meaningless, no-content, profit-only "games". I don't even have to buy a system to play them on, since all they're there for is a profit; I can just set the worthless discs on my shelf and pretend! And the guys still get my money, because that's all they made the disc for! Whoohoo!

  • pyth0n13

    Posted Mar 26, 2006 10:10 pm PT

    u can have a piece of my fist!

  • playwrite

    Posted Mar 26, 2006 4:40 pm PT

    wow. that katamari guy is both crazy and awesome

  • m0zart Site moderator

    Posted Mar 26, 2006 10:30 am PT

    Its just an idea for a game folks. Its not the end of the gaming industry as you know it. No one is wasting time by playing a game like this before an audience.

  • Achilles438

    Posted Mar 26, 2006 4:19 am PT

    they are wasting their time, they should stick to what the games are made for,which is to make money.

  • deadesa

    Posted Mar 25, 2006 4:53 pm PT

    hahaha CliffyB makes me laugh everytime. Making UN leaders play that game would be one of the funniest things to watch ever!

  • crithon

    Posted Mar 25, 2006 4:24 pm PT

    now that's something fun to sit through. Why isn't Gamespot showing footage of this?

  • John_of_Fire

    Posted Mar 25, 2006 2:44 pm PT

    GDC sounds like a great event to attend. It's more about the gaming community and thinking about what were doing as developers, while having fun, than any other event. E3 is now about mobs of people, boobies, and declaring war on other systems.

  • i_love_my_ds

    Posted Mar 25, 2006 11:24 am PT

    that game sounds pretty dumb actually....

  • rojodiablo

    Posted Mar 25, 2006 6:59 am PT

    Most commenters have missed the point. Its a laugh. An exercise. They're not actually going to produce, market and sell a game based around getting the Nobel Peace Prize. It encourages original thought and provokes new ideas. Takahashi's idea would've got my vote, he's hit it right on the nail, in my view.

  • ftjx

    Posted Mar 25, 2006 1:47 am PT

    donīt people ever grow up. I will never in my life be able to understand this kind of collective selfdeceit. But i guess its always been like this....

  • nemes1s3000

    Posted Mar 25, 2006 12:45 am PT

    Could be fun lol.

  • ExcAREentric

    Posted Mar 24, 2006 10:42 pm PT

    i think Viva Piniata has a better chance at winning the nobel peace prize.

  • TacoJelly

    Posted Mar 24, 2006 10:14 pm PT

    Good, we need diversity in games. Seriously, shooters and fighters are fun and all (when they're well done) but it would be a breath of fresh air to see some games go down the oppisite path and still maintain the same level of entertainment. It would also make people respect game developers more as artists.

  • agent401

    Posted Mar 24, 2006 9:10 pm PT

    The idea sounds interesting, and it might turn out good. But to me it sounds more like they're trying to find a new way to spread political propaganda rather than make a quality game.

  • buildar

    Posted Mar 24, 2006 8:18 pm PT

    It just a big competition to see what thinking outside the box for games themes can produce. It a big hoot and everyone there seems to enjoy it. Kudos to them for coming up with something, i doubt i could make an interesting peace based game.

  • dr_taffin

    Posted Mar 24, 2006 7:48 pm PT

    [This message was deleted at the request of a moderator or administrator]

  • PowerBomb

    Posted Mar 24, 2006 6:56 pm PT

    Good Motives, but it might not be the smartest of game ideas.

  • davahsa

    Posted Mar 24, 2006 6:20 pm PT

    Flash mobs should include people flashing one another..... give piece a chance brother!

  • xaos

    Posted Mar 24, 2006 5:38 pm PT

    Flash mobs make me die a little inside.

  • EqualPlatinum

    Posted Mar 24, 2006 4:58 pm PT

    GS should organise a gamedesign competition. Wait- do they do that already?

  • glitchgeeman

    Posted Mar 24, 2006 4:57 pm PT

    Um, okay. Still, combining peace and games is a hard thing to do. I could never come up with an idea that involved peace and games.

  • Led_poison

    Posted Mar 24, 2006 4:49 pm PT

    shoudnt be that hard, sine they give those away like Candy

  • Donkeljohn Site moderator

    Posted Mar 24, 2006 4:49 pm PT

    Flash mobs are a hoot.

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