Scott Miller On Making Max Payne A Success

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to 3D Realms founder Scott Miller's weblog entry discussing the reasons why Max Payne "was purposely positioned for success right from the start" . Although Miller, the man overseeing the ever-delayed Duke Nukem Forever, has now sold his share of Max Payne's IP to Take Two/Rockstar, he discusses specifics, including the choice of name ("A perfect name will convey something about the product... have good word-play possibilities for press and news headlines... and have a good short-hand version"), the hook ("The attribute Max owns is 'bullet-time,' like Volvo owns the word 'safety' and McDonalds owns 'fast'") and controversy ("Max Payne had a little, though it didn't get as much press as we thought it might.") He also reveals 3D Realms is "currently working with another developer, with a very similar relationship that we had with Remedy, to create another hit series (or so we hope!)" - an announcement is due in 2004.

Comments

Re:Ownage

[gl4ss]

remedy had demoed the effect(of slowing down the time) prior to matrix movie came(mp had been in development for quite some time by then, first publicly demoed as part of final reality in 1997 or so at the assembly, a demoparty held in finland). sure, matrix might have had something to do why it was a success and people could instantly like it, but not on it being there (and of course one 3dmark has a scene that is very matrix like). all afaik/iirc, the year might be off by 1 but i heard prior to the matrix movies about the features(of the engine, such as being able to freeze time and see the bullets mid air) from some friends who had happened to seen some private screenings.

though, who they really 'own it to' must be woo(the matrix boys own it to him as well.. though he again might own it to somebody else i'm not sure where his ideas came from).

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Re:Ownage

[PainKilleR-CE]

Based on date of usage, the term should belong to Warner - especially since they originally wanted to do "Enter The Matrix" way back in 1999 (they approached Dave Perry of Shiny Entertainment but he originally turned them down).

You seem to be forgetting that the original Max Payne was in development longer than the original Unreal, or about half as long as DNF. Most of the people following the game saw 'bullet time' demos long before the Matrix was in theaters.