In able to successfully render the realm of Lucas Arts' upcoming Star Wars: The Force Unleashed game, three different physics engines were used. In a video we have for you, the developers talk about how Havok, Euphoria, and DMM take part in making the world of the Star Wars unlike any other game under the franchise.

Develop Magazine's Industry Excellence Awards broke records after gathering 500 games industry executives last night. Among them, 17 different companies and individuals claimed the 18 awards over 15 categories.

A panel of industry experts voted for the best in different categories to reward various creative achievements in game development - from visual arts to innovation. The diversity of the list gives us nothing but a positive outlook, and assurance that the market won't run out of good games if these guys are around.

Here's the list of winners that deserve our cheers:

• New Console IP - MotorStorm (Evolution/SCEE External Development)
• New Handheld IP - Crush (Zoe Mode)
• Best Use of a License - Lego Star Wars II (Traveller's Tales)
• Visual Arts - Rare (for Viva Piñata)
• Audio Accomplishment - FreeStyle (for B-Boy)
• Publishing Hero - Sega
• Innovation - Real Time Worlds (for Crackdown)
• Tools Provider - Havok
• Best Use of Online - Eden Studios (for Test Drive Unlimited)
• Services & Outsourcing - Babel Media
• Recruitment Company - Datascope
• New UK Studio - Realtime Worlds
• Handheld Studio - Rockstar Leeds
• Business Development - Blitz
• Independent Developer - Traveller's Tales
• In-house Developer - Ubisoft France
• Development Legend - Ian Hetherington
• Grand Prix - Sony

We're not sure about the exact criteria, but a good guess would say Sega earned the "Publishing Hero" award for having plenty of titles in all flavors under its belt. With Rockstar Leeds' big games in its arsenal (GTA: Liberty City/Vice City Stories), it's no surprise why the company is branded the best "Handheld Studio."

Sony's Grand Prix Award is due to 12 months of extensive support for internal and external developers to create cutting edge next-gen games.

 

From the folks that will be bringing you the Develop Conference and Expo on July 2007, Tandem Events organizes a double event dedicated for the games graduates of UK. GamesGrads is slated to occur on April 24 and April 26, on Manchester and London respectively.

GamesGrads is a full-blown game career fair to be supported by numerous game industry names, including Havok, Microsoft Game Studios, Disney Interactive Studios, Rare, Lionhead, Juice, and Rebellion. They are many more other developer studios that have yet to confirm details on their attendance. Ali Wynn, an organizer at Tandem Events, was proud to say that the developer response to the event was "great." She also added:

We've got some high profile studios actively looking to recruit games graduates taking part and so far hundreds of graduates registered to come along and meet up with them, showcase their work and hopefully secure a career in the games industry.

Game industry students interested in attending GamesGrads should look up the official GamesGrads website and register there. All registrants will be entered into a draw to win an iPod Video and a Super Pass for the Develop Conference and Expo 2007 to take place once again in Brighton.

 

If it isn't apparent from the pre-vis video that was released months ago, LucasArts wanted emphasize "kicking ass" with the Force in their game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

But how does the man behind the force, George Lucas take to all this Force-ass-kicking? Well, Star Wars: Force Unleashed project lead, Hayden Blackman informed the press at the Game Developers Conference 2007 that when he put together a "pre-viz" video (we're assuming that it's similar to the one released to the press) that showed off the interactivity and the force related physics in the game to Mr. Lucas, it was one of the most frightening moments of his life. He explains:

Here we were showing the guy who created the force where we wanted to go with the games. ...He turned to us and said, "That's great, that's exactly what you need to do for games, go make that game." And I was terrified because we didn't have the technology to implement this into a game yet.

Over at LucasArts, they define the term "next-gen gameplay" by its focus on simulation-based gameplay as opposed to hard-coded scripted events. Over at LucasArts, while they still have to "hard code" certain aspects of next-gen gameplay, it is the exception rather than the norm.

Given that the concept they gave Lucas got the approval but they didn't have the tech yet. And LucasArts wanted to do less hard-coding, and focus more on simulation. It's no surprise that they're putting their eggs in the much touted Digital Molecular Matter physics, Euphoria, and Havok engine basket.

Will those engines make LucasArts' Star Wars: The Force Unleashed match up to the pre viz that Blackman showed Lucas? Well, given that there isn't a narrow enough release window yet, we'll just have to hope and pray for a demo or something so we'd have something to chew on.