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Jeff Minter's Unity Cancelled
An anonymous reader writes "This morning, Jeff Minter officially announced the end of development on his game "Unity", which was to be published by Lionhead Studios. The post included a press release which claimed that Minter "would not be able to finish Unity in an acceptable time frame". Minter is well known as the mad genius behind Llamasoft and creator of such games as Attack of the Mutant Camels, Llamatron, and Tempest 2000. Unity was to be an "abstract shooter" based on Minter's research into lightsynths and interactive graphic musical accompaniment.
Did the fact that the GameCube is nearing the end of its lifecycle contribute to the cancellation of the game, or are trippy music/shooters (ala REZ) just too weird to attain mainstream success?"
the only game I ever spent money on.
I literlay played it untill my hands were bleeding.
So, as time t increases, the odds of the project being cancelled approach... Unity?
I saw some videos about Unity at the last Assembly party where Jeff held a speech about the history (and future) of his company. Looked pretty wild and I was really intrigued. The guy seemed pretty.. experienced with colors'n'stuff :). But as Jeffs post says, the main reason is that Gamecube is dying and rather than rush an unfinished crap out they decided to can it. I think this is for the better. Better to make good unique IP games than mediocre. We have licences and sequels fed to us through our noses so every quality nonmass product is a boon.
But all the good to you Jeff; hope to see if you still have the energy to start a new project!
I'd really like to see the numbers, because the Gamecube owners I know are fairly loyal, and all buy 10+ games.
(plus a minute amount of piracy compared to Dreamcast, PS2, and XboX)
"Martha Stewart can lick my Scrotum......do i have a scrotum?" -- Sharon Osbourne
Last time I checked the GC had about 1/10th of the sales of the PS2. Unless only 1% of the gaming population cares about the PS2 and half the world are gamers your guesstimation is wrong.
Besides, we're talking about an abstract shooter developed by Jeff Minter, not exactly something that'll outsell Madden.
Ah, guess I shouldn't feed a troll but whatever.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
It's tough to get a feel for what Unity was all about, but as they say, a screenshot is worth a thousand words (scroll down). There's also a bit on VLM3, which they say predated the Unity project.
I still remember reading about (I believe it was) Attack of the Mutant Camels in Antic/Angalog magazine during the early '80s. Unity's cancellation may be disappointing, but the fact that Jeff Minter is still involved in the industry after 20 years is, IMO, nothing put a positive.
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We're indie. We're working on our 14th game.
Besides, who decided to make this game for the GameCube in the first place? Don't get me wrong, I love my 'Cube, but you're developing a game for a niche market, and hence should try to get that game to be available to the largest install-base available. The PS2 or PC spring to mind...but GameCube?
GameCube is a close #3 in the US. You'll se that the GC comprises 20% of the US home console userbase.
And here you will see the japanese sales charts. For this year the GC sales are about 25% of the PS2 sales.
So judging by sales numbers, about 20% cares about the GC because they own one. It is the #2 home console world wide you know.
...that's the real reason for Unity's cancelation. It follows in the heals of the cancellation of BC a few weeks ago,6 983 ).
;-)
and that in turn follows Lionhead raising a fairly big amount of venture capital a couple of months ago
(see here: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=5
Peter is the real problem, he is a bit like the British games industry's own Ozzy Osbourn, only without the swearing drugs, and hair
Knowing people who work for him, arises an impression of the talented, tortured designer who is rapidly approaching 50 and worries that his glory days are behind him.
Lionhead is a great company full of talented people who work in fantastic conditions at least compared to the rest of the industry here in the UK, but they are castrated by his "overzealousness", he has to be involved in everything, no one else can come with ideas...
And the way he treated his "satellite studios" (like the developers of BC and Unity) leaves much to be desired, even for the cruelest of publishers.
Maybe he does it just to get good, innovative ideas and teams, and than make sure they "will never have lunch in this city again"?
"667 - Neighbour of the beast"
Does profit mean something different in the UK English than in US English? 'cause the way I'm reading that, they're stating that the retail price for a game == profit, ignoring the cost associated.
What has he been doing all the time?
Probably "researching" trippy graphics.
Random and weird software I've written.
I have to say I was really looking forward to Unity. T2K and D2K kept me entertained for many, many hours on the Jaguar, and made sure I didn't regret buying the console or the games.
When I saw the last videos, I was just amazed, sure this would be one incredible game, and probably break new ground.
Too bad... I really would love to find a new, trippy, unique game.
"You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do."
My point was not software. The post said that 0.1% of people cared about the gamecube. The UK article showed total US console sales. (which is hard to find)
All I was trying to say is that the GameCube console has very respectable sales figures.
I mean the last game he wrote was for Nuon enabled DVD players - the gamecube has a gigantic audience in comparison.
"...are trippy music/shooters (ala REZ) just too weird to attain mainstream success?"
As long as there is marijuana and home video game systems, these type of games have a guaranteed audience!
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Sadly this was moderated down to Troll, but my point is, innovative games are usually shelves in terms of games like Mario Party 6, because those games sell much better. I mean seriously, what are the chances of me seeing Ico 2 in my lifetime? I was lucky enough to get the first one.
In a very small, unofficial, biased event, a 3-hour videogame marathon in a college theater, Rez was the most popular! Believe it or not.
The PS2 games played were: Soul Calibur II, Beatmania IIDX 8th Style, Amplitude, and Rez. Rez had the pick-up-and play quality and was extremely "trippy" on the big screen. Soul Calibur II was 2nd place.
I'm not sure it's fair to discount Rez, it just didn't get the exposure it needed.