Microsoft E3 2007 press conference in Santa Monica, California

What is it?

The Microsoft E3 Press Conference

Why should I care?

Xbox 360. Games For Windows. Halo 3.

Where did it take place?

Santa Monica High School.

Opening act:

Corporeal, a Halo-inspired rock band. The kids were all right.

First game shown:

Harmonix-MTV-EA's Guitar Hero killer, Rock Band, featuring Harmonix founders Alex Rigopoulos and Greg LoPiccolo jamming with Xbox chief Peter Moore.

High point:

Playthrough of a new level from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Olive green never looked so good--or so lethal.

More E3 At-a-Glance after the jump.

EveryDay Shooter creator Jonathan Mak

How did you connect with Sony to publish EveryDay Shooter?

One day, Warren Currell, who represents me in the business side of things, called me up saying, "pack your bags, we're going to LA to meet Sony." I hate doing pitch meetings, talking business, basically doing anything other than making games, so it was a bit of a chore to fly down. When we arrived at the Sony studios, I remember walking into the conference room thinking "oh geez...this is going to suck!" Let me put this into perspective: one of the publishers we met trashed Everyday Shooter because it had no sound effects (Huh!?? Did they even play it?). So I had a lot of bad experience with publisher meetings.

But Sony was different. Surprisingly, and refreshingly different. They were one of the few who understood the game on a personal level, and this is the main reason why I decided to connect with Sony.

You're the quintessential one-man garage band game creator, while Playstation 3 is supposed to be incredibly hard to program for. Were you nervous about moving development of EveryDay Shooter from PC/Mac/Linux to Playstation 3? How long did it take you to get the game up and running on the PS3, and what kind of help did Sony provide?

It's only incredibly hard if you're trying to emulate life. This bugs me a lot. The technology in EveryDay Shooter is old. The collision systems are based on algorithms from the 90s, and the graphics/sound technology is based on techniques from years ago. But those technologies/techniques are still incredibly powerful/expressive! I can't understand why people don't use it more often. It's like they're substituting technology for creativity.

To specifically answer your question, yes I was nervous, but after a few days without sleep I had EveryDay Shooter running on the PS3. Of course there were problems, and there are probably still more problems to fix--you should ask me again when it's all said and done because who knows what QA will find.

However, I'd say that the most frustrating part of building ES for PS3 was converting the gameplay to fit a widescreen [16:9] format. Originally, I spent a good deal of time tweaking the game so that it played perfectly on a 4:3 screen, and so I wanted to maintain the same game balance that I worked so hard to achieve. I mean, if I'm going to do this, the conversion has to be perfect. Anything else is unacceptable. Fortunately, after an unbelievable amount of worrying and work, I think I've finally implemented the last major tweak to make the game play perfectly.

As for Sony's involvement, they were helpful in hooking me up with useful resources like documents, sample code, and answering whatever questions I had.

How has the game evolved since you began working on the PS3? Is the album metaphor that you've been working with still in place?

The third level of EveryDay Shooter, titled "Lush Look Killer"

Confession time: because of our focus on boring, big-budget videogames at this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, we missed all of the exciting independent games on display. So when a little birdie informed us that Sony Computer Entertainment had snapped up Queasy Games' award-winning indie title EveryDay Shooter for a Playstation Network release later this year (sooner, rather than later, we're told), we knew that the best way for us to do penance was to bring you the news--first. So we scored an email interview with Queasy's multifarious designer-artist-programmer Jonathan Mak (see here), then jetted over to the swank The Huntley Hotel in Santa Monica to play it on a Playstation 3 test kit, running at 1080p and 60 frames per second, for those of you keeping score at home. It didn't take us long to realize that we were playing something special. After five minutes, we were hooked; after an hour, we had to tear ourselves away to meet up with some fellow journalists for drinks.

EveryDay Shooter is a twin-stick, um, shooter. You steer your ship--in this case, a white pixel--with the left analog stick and fire in whichever direction you push the right analog stick. You can simply shoot down all your enemies and collect the pixels they leave behind for points, but the most efficient way to take them out is to shoot the objects that trigger chain explosions. But each level not only looks completely different from the level that came before, it also has its own rules as to how its explosive chains work. Best of all, the surreal graphics are vector-based, which means that they're created from mathematical equations; and every enemy you destroy plays a musical note or a riff which is layered on top of the default musical theme for the level. The whole thing adds up to a unique experience that requires your complete attention at the start of each level as you try to figure out its rules, then zone out once you know what you're doing.

Our handler couldn't get the cheat codes to work, which meant that our progression was limited to our ability. That got us through three levels of the game, titled "Level 1," "Root of the Heart" and "Lush Look Killer." It's hard to describe what the game sounds like, other than to say each level will remind you of one of your favorite alt-rock bands. We're suckers for synesthesia-based games like Rez and Every Extend Extra, and the feeling of holding the right analog stick forward, unleashing a volley of firepower at a tough-to-kill enemy and hearing a sustained guitar riff blasting out of the speakers is an all-senses-on-deck rush that we can't wait to experience again. From Geometry Wars and Mutant Storm Reloaded to Super Stardust HD and EveryDay shooter, it's clear that the twin-stick shooter is undergoing a renaissance. And if the boredom is the disease afflicting videogames, the best twin-stick shooters--like EveryDay Shooter--are the cure.

1. CAC...David Jaffe shut out of E3. Profanity ensues.
2. Wii...collateral damage: hardcore gamers?
3. HUH...Trion sounds cool, need more info
4. RND...Spinal Tap. Live Earth. Must-see.