Bungie Co-Founder Tries New Approach, Licenses Halo Engine 39
Thanks to GamesIndustry.biz for its article discussing Bungie co-founder Alexander Seropian's forming of Wideload Games, a development studio "which has started work on a new PC/Xbox title based on the Halo engine technology." The studio's development philosophy is an attempt to break with the past by using "a very small number of core staff, and hiring independent staffers to actually bring the game through to completion", and Seropian comments of current large-scale development methodologies: "It's kind of broken... it's kind of antiquated - it's how they were making films in the '30s."
Hasn't this been done before (Score:2, Interesting)
uh.. (Score:5, Insightful)
So they are outsourcing?
Erm... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Erm... (Score:2, Informative)
His magnum crapus Daikatana [amazon.com] is bargain bin, but he worked on some of the more legendary games out there as well so he is forgiven esp since he cut his hair [gignews.com] and made all of us balding geeks less jealous.
Re:Erm... (Score:1)
Re:Erm... (Score:1)
Re:Erm... (Score:2)
Re:Erm... (Score:1)
Re:Erm... (Score:1)
Films from the 30s (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Films from the 30s (Score:4, Insightful)
Every decade has had some great films. The 30s are not unique in that respect.
Re:Films from the 30s (Score:5, Informative)
What he's talking about is improving writing/creation/etc, not the special effects. He's not saying "black and white movies are crappy" he was just saying that they hadn't properly figured out how to organize a movie production. This is not to say that games are crappy or that movies were crappy, it's just to say that it can be done cheaper and faster with higher quality results.
Why did you think he'd license someone else's engine if his only concerns were the newest special effects?
Re:Films from the 30s (Score:5, Interesting)
Rob
Making Games. (Score:3, Insightful)
On a side note I think there trying to save money buy only hiring talent when they need them. So if the soundtrack is done they can save money by not having them hang around any longer ect. Then again it's hard to work with a development team that is constantly changing. I am going to vote for underpaid development teams working 80 hour weeks hoping for a success time will tell. VS. the consultant's that are just trying to rack up development but shout be interesting.
Flawed Analogy (Score:5, Insightful)
Movies shoot in locations around the world, and a production company may find themselves in vastly different physical locations from film to film, requiring local talent to fill out the pool.
Movies are by-and-large made with very standardized technology, the Pananflex, HMIs, 10ks, there is a standard lingo for stardard equipment that make it possible for a freelancer from Boston to interact with a film crew from LA.
This didn't use to be the case, in the early years of film, the technology was very mutable, standards were still forming, very chaotic, and very creative. Things are now more formalized, and frequently formula-ized.
I doubt the game industry will find it self "shooting on location," so the first bit of the analogy falls flat.
As for the second, until graphics performance hit's it's peak (maybe it has), and it's widely regarded industry-wide that there is no percentage in building a new engine from scratch (some movement in that direction, re Doom/Unreal engine liscencing) you're not going to see the kind of standardization that allows a freelance workforce to interoperate seamlessly between companies.
As it currently stands, a worker becomes more valuable the longer he stays with a developer, and new people have a large amount of developer specific information to absorb before they can function.
As to which model, old Hollywood/new Hollywood, is to the advantage of the worker, well, that's a tougher call.
Great. (Score:2, Insightful)
Now, we'll have 100's of crappy FPS games on the Xbox!
Anyone remember all the Doom/Quake clones in the mid late 90's on the PC?
Heh (Score:4, Funny)
You say that as if they stopped coming out...
Wait and see... (Score:1)
Personally I am excited to see him trying a development process that is, if not entirely new, new to the games industry.
I look forward to seeing what the game they come out with is like.
Wideload Games? (Score:3, Funny)
Halo Engine... *snicker* (Score:3, Interesting)
Having said that, I completely agree with the state of the industry vis a vi "ten core staffers, lotsa outsourced help." Video games by the same developers tend to be hit and miss, mostly because the "core staff" varies so much -- see Bioware, Troika and Interplay (Fallout/2/BOS) for example. Now look at Studio Ghibli in regards to animation/anime - every single movie these guys have churned out is bloody fantastic. We need more video game devs like Ghibli.
Re:Halo Engine... *snicker* (Score:1, Funny)
Whew... for a second there I thought you said Gigli
Re:Halo Engine... *snicker* (Score:2)
Bad example. Bioware has churned out nothing but hits (The Lost Vikings, MDK, BG/2, NWN+2xpacks, KotOR), while Troika's games never had universal appeal (across the RPG spectrum; Arcanum, ToEE both have loyal followings despite unaccessable gameplay), and Interplay is a publisher; Black Isle is the dev house you meant, which made s
Re:Halo Engine... *snicker* (Score:1)
Re:Halo Engine... *snicker* (Score:2)
-lw
Re:Halo Engine... *snicker* (Score:1)
pre-industrial revolution (Score:5, Interesting)
Untill technology exists for the equivelent of unskilled labor to design the chairs, wheels, and furniture of a gaming world, the costs of developing games will still be high.
I forsee a day soon when a start up will open that specializes in creating the props of vidoegame worlds so that game designers will have a situation similar to that of the players of the Sims where they have a wide variety of chairs (or whatever) to pick from and they just plop it into the game pre-fab without having to employ someone to exclusively make such props.
Now certainly there is something to say for props that are build explicitly for the game. They provide a sence of stylistic unity. But I really do see a day when pre-fab props will come to be used.
Re:pre-industrial revolution (Score:1)
As for cache for cash models, I think you're also going to run into some problems given that so many games have to tailor the art to their peculiar aesthetics. A shotgun approach to design (e.g. here's the sci-fi chairs, here's the fantasy chairs, e
Sounds like Epic and UT2004 (Score:5, Informative)
Of course I think this is how Epic tends to do stuff as well. The bots from the original UT were coded by someone who made bots for Quake 1 I belive.
Re:Sounds like Epic and UT2004 (Score:1, Funny)
I didn't see the
It's the Actors, not the workers (Score:4, Insightful)
It seems to me, his reference to the movie industry is not about the (grips, gaffers, etc) but the actors.
Their 'plan' is to make super-star developers. So, you get "American McGee's Alice" happening more often.
"Halo Remix, starring John Johnson on AI, with Bill Billiams on Textures, and directed by Tom Thompson. With Special guest in Organic Modelling Nick Nicholby!"
The block buster games will start to be created by the famous 'rock-star' developers....and the dev houses and publishers will be no more important than "Universal" vs "DreamWorks".
Outsourcing Development, another take (Score:2)
They just brought the whole Desert Combat team on board to produce an official Desert Combat mod. So perhaps they might be outsourcing and getting more of the modding community officially involved, which seems like an infinitely wise move for them. It may not be th
Dumb Move... (Score:2)
I'm sorry. I'm not a fan of Halo. There's just nothing there that I can't get mo
Re:Not so Dumb Move... (Score:2)