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How a Quake 3 Mod Team Turned Into a Successful Studio 43

Posted by Soulskill from the attention-to-detail dept.
Paul Williams writes "Develop Magazine has an interesting profile up looking at UK studio Splash Damage, charting its humble beginnings as a Quake 3 mod team through to its status as one of Britain's leading studios — it's currently developing a new game for Bethesda. Most interesting is the assertion by studio founder Paul Wedgwood that UK studios should shake off their low-rent reputation and start modeling their businesses on the likes of Valve, id, and the other envied American independents: 'We'd been to the US and seen companies like Ritual, Gearbox and id, and to us it seemed like the game development industry was seen as better in the US. People sat in cool chairs in cool offices surrounded by action figures — it was nothing like the UK's approach, which was more like a workhouse.'"
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How a Quake 3 Mod Team Turned Into a Successful Studio More

How a Quake 3 Mod Team Turned Into a Successful Studio

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  • Ever read Dickins, son? (Score:5, Funny)

    by jollyreaper ( 513215 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2008 @02:45PM (#24768931)

    "It was nothing like the UK's approach, which was more like a workhouse."

    It's either the prison or the workhouse, consider yourself lucky. Now get back to work and don't you dare open your gob about having another bowl of porridge, laddie!

    "If you don't beat your meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don't beat yer meat!"

    • "If you don't beat your meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don't beat yer meat!"

      Sorry, but that's one of the funniest things I've seen in a while.

  • Quake Wars ended up great (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mahsah ( 1340539 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2008 @03:15PM (#24769255)

    It was plagued by bad launch decisions though -- no VOIP, in game advertising (which seems to be gone), somewhat outdated graphics, poor performance, etc. Not to mention that the trailers and advertising portrayed the game as a gritty futuristic shooter, whereas in reality it is actually a fairly humorous run-and-gun. (Like the original Enemy Territory)

    These have mostly been remedied by patches though. Really it has become a great game -- it remains fairly balanced while still providing a lot of variety between teams. Plus there is nothing more satisfying then calling down a giant orange laser from space onto a group of enemies :3

    • Battlefield 2 has in-game VoIP that almost nobody uses. They all use Teamspeak or Ventrilo instead. Perhaps leaving it out isn't that bad of a decision.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by miscz ( 888242 )
      ETQW is an awesome game but Team Fortress 2 is all the rage recently and steals much of it's target group. Marketing for TF2 is top notch and Valve is doing a great job of supporting this title. I was considering buying QW but ended up with TF2 just because it was $10 cheaper :) Not to mention Steam being quite nice these days. I wouldn't be surprised if QW was more popular if it was marketed as well as TF2 is.

      • TF2 is all the rage because it appeals to lazy casual gamers who start crying if they play something like Quake. Believe me, I've talked to a lot of TF2 players and this kind of attitude is damn near universal among them.

  • ETQW (Score:5, Insightful)

    by pak9rabid ( 1011935 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2008 @03:17PM (#24769283)
    I'll have to give it to Splash Damage...they did an amazing job with Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (ETQW). I was a little skeptical about how it might turn out, seeing as how Splash Damage started off as a mod 'company', but I've been thoroughly impressed with their results. Their QA is what I'd expect from id software or even Blizzard. I definitely look forward to future titles from them.
    • ETQW is an awesome game, tons of fun to play, and yet it features asymetrical teams, and is still balanced, which must have been a hell of a task, but gives it a great unique feel that lends well to replayablity.

      • yes praise the ETQW! now come join us =D
        ~FFS~HAVOCtheHedgehog@ETQW

      • ETQW is an awesome game, tons of fun to play, and yet it features asymetrical teams, and is still balanced, which must have been a hell of a task, but gives it a great unique feel that lends well to replayablity.

        I agree whole-heartedly, especially the bit about implementing the asymmetric teams being a pain in the ass. I'm sure it was a total pain in the ass to get everything just right such that both teams were different, yet equal. I'm surprised ETQW isn't more popular than it is.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Colonel Korn ( 1258968 )

      I'll have to give it to Splash Damage...they did an amazing job with Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (ETQW). I was a little skeptical about how it might turn out, seeing as how Splash Damage started off as a mod 'company', but I've been thoroughly impressed with their results. Their QA is what I'd expect from id software or even Blizzard. I definitely look forward to future titles from them.

      Blizzard games tend to ship with bugs. Don't get me wrong - they're way ahead of most developers in that respect, and bugs tend to be seldom encountered. Still, I think id manages to beat them handily when it comes to QA, so I'd reverse the order in which you mentioned id and Blizz.

  • Depends on the American Studio visited... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by kalirion ( 728907 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2008 @04:03PM (#24769795)

    I'm guessing they didn't visit EA.

  • Great work from them (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DesScorp ( 410532 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2008 @04:11PM (#24769889) Journal

    Wolfenstien: Enemy Territory surpassed Doom II as my all time favorite game. I still find it more enjoyable than even newer games, like Doom III and it's spinoffs. The fact that these guys started as amateurs is amazing.

    • I can't say it's my fave of all time, but it's damn sure one of my faves, and I play it as often as I can. Recently I introed a friend to it, and he said I should take a look at Day of Defeat Source. I checked it out. It had better gfx and nothing that made ET fun. Medics don't revive, no objectives to build, no tanks or trucks or boats to move, etc. ET is still awesome in every respect.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Sark666 ( 756464 )

      I would agree that ET is the best multiplayer game of all time. I'll exclude single player games cause really they are a much different experience.

      I played doom back in the day, but that feeling of when quake first got going online was amazing, seeing the development of quakeworld, the mods (ctf with keys back in the day, quake arena etc), then quake 2 and still loving it. But then quake 3 came out, and there was nothing wrong with the game, but I just felt like I've been there done that, one too many tim

  • All three of those companies are based in Texas and connected somehow to the culture of Apogee, shareware, Doom, and id...okay, so their company isn't Texas game developer culture...what is? I don't think that's a representative sample of developers for comparison. There's a definite "frat boy" geek attitude that permeated id from Doom to Quake II...more rock star than anything else. Romero and Carmack both redefined what it meant to be in games and game development.
    • They also cited Valve, though, whose sole connection to that culture is having licensed id's engine at one point. Splash Damage has a closer tie to id than that
  • I'd rather work in a "work house" 40-50 hours a week, than work some place that tries to hard to be "fun" to compensate for the fact you're working 60+ hours every week, and 80+ during the all too often "crunch time".

    • True, any sort of "fun and frivolity" quickly goes out the window during 60+ hour crunches. I've got good news for you though... The game development industry is actually starting to grow up. A large number of my co-workers are married (with children - gasp!), and having a life outside of work is increasingly important to a good many very talented and very senior developers. This, combined with the fact that employers don't want to get a reputation for burning out their employees, means that the situati

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