By Wanda Meloni
The annual Game Developers Conference was just a few weeks ago, so it is fitting that we look at the trends in the gaming industry and the tools that are pushing the envelope for the new game platforms and technology advancements.

Tools for game development have gotten significantly more sophisticated over the past three years, and there are several reasons for that. First, the games industry itself has become a multi-billion dollar industry, with estimates for 2000 reaching well over $10 billion. This is no longer a cottage industry, but in fact is now outpacing the film industry in annual sales. As a result, game developers and publishers alike are spending more money to develop, market and distribute games than ever before. And as the market grows, so too does the consumer's level of sophistication for advanced graphics, game play and interactivity.

Now, the latest game consoles are hitting the market, with last year's launch of the Sony Playstation2, and the upcoming launch of Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube. These new systems give games the cinematic quality of movies with real-time capabilities. These systems are more powerful than the super computers of the past and have the graphics complexity to drive military simulations - all for under $300. So how does this impact the development tools for games?

Animation Packages
Professional animation packages have progressed from being strictly used in film and video markets to making up the core of game development.
The primary animation packages that are in the games market are:

3D Studio Max - Discreet

Maya - Alias|Wavefront

Lightwave - Newtek

These packages have specifically addressed the games market by extending their core functionality to better meet the needs of game developers, such as advanced character animation. Because of 3D Studio Max's open architecture for third party plugins they have had a strong lead in vertically positioning Max within the games community and as a result they currently lead this in the games space with over 65% market share.

They also are starting to work more succinctly with game engines. In the case of 3D Studio Max, Discreet has just released gmax, the company's licensable game development platform. Alias/Wavefront has also released a game development SDK for Maya.

Game Engines
What exactly are game engines used for? Game engines help bridge the animations and scenes built by the animation packages into extensibly-linked data sets that can keep track of all the data in real-time for fluid, seamless game play.

Game engines and middleware tools have become increasingly important for game development. In the past game developers wanted to do it all, program the game, build the tools, create the artwork, and design the game play. However, as the capabilities of the platforms advance the complexities of creating games for them has also increased. These days developers are looking more and more to off-the-shelf development tools to help solve different problems. Why re-invent the wheel if someone else can license you a ready-made solution? Some of the top game engines and middleware tools include:

RenderWare - Criterion

Lithtech - Monolith

Netimmerse - Numerical Design

Quake II Engine - id Software

Unreal Engine - Epic MegaGames

Intrinsic Alchemy - Intrinsic Graphics

Mike King, VP of Marketing at Criterion explained, "It's because we've tried to scale a bedroom game development operation into a $20 billion process and - surprise, surprise - it doesn't scale. Game development needs professional project and process management, and a key part of that is middleware technology."

Multiplayer
Games that have multiplayer functionality are becoming more and more common, and there are a number of tools that support multiplayer development. For example, at GDC WildTangent announced their Web Driver platform. The new multiplayer capabilities will allow Web developers to design Web pages in Java or JavaScript that communicate in real-time across a corporate LAN or over the Internet, allowing them to create real-time games as well as collaborative applications for the Web.

Many of the game engines also support multiplayer functionality which is becoming more and more a necessary component for a successful game.

Hardware
The 3D hardware of these machines is really quite incredible when you realize that game systems only cost several hundred dollars. Nvidia has been lighting the way in the hardware space for the past year. Where others have fallen in decay, Nvidia seems to have propelled itself into the Golden Age. The company has had two record quarters even given the state of the industry at the moment. Having partnered with Microsoft on the Xbox was a big boost for the company, aside from the graphics being nothing less than stunning. One of the smarter moves by Nvidia is that they created early driver support and development tools for their hardware, making it easier for developers to develop for the Xbox.

The list of top graphics companies continues to shrink as the market becomes now dominated by only a few players. Even since the last Game Developers Conference the number of hardware players has been whittled away. 3Dlabs acquired Intergraphs' graphics division, Nvidia purchased its archrival 3Dfx and ATI acquired the FireGL line from SonicBlue.

Audio
The audio component in gaming has been the last area of development to get any notice, however there are exciting trends progressing within the audio market. Today, game developers are more aware of the impact quality audio can have on a game. More time is being spent up front during the design process to build in the audio component.

Audio designers are very excited about finally having a little more flexibility to add more compelling audio to their games. They are creating more audio on every level, from background noise, to original music scores and interactive dialog. Today there is a real awakening to the important role audio contributes to the overall game play of a first-rate game.

Additionally, support in the developer community is growing for surround sound, with Dolby Laboratories and DTS being the beneficiaries. Other audio tool vendors making headway in the games space include Sensaura and Staccato Systems.

So, what do all these technology advancements mean to the gaming community?
Well, game development has reached an extremely high level of complexity. With the multiple game platforms, real-time functionality and cinematic graphics, game developers are looking for tools to better support their development process, not bottleneck it. The complexity of game development will continue to escalate over the coming years and as a result, the games market will continue to be a thriving market for game developers and tool vendors alike.

Wanda Meloni
M2 Research
wanda@m2research.com.

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