The Path to AAA Games
Gamasutra has up a feature discussing an E3 discussion session haunted by some illustrious names in game design. The topic of the panel was The Path to Creating AAA Games. Hosted by Carly Staehlin, the panel featured Matt Firor, Todd Howard, Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Tim Willits, and Will Wright. From the article: "'My biggest failure was Quake 3,' Willits said. 'The game offered perfect multiplayer for hardcore players. In fact, they're still playing it. But the more casual gamers, and other people who actually have money, found playing next to impossible.'"
Done. What's next on the agenda today?
Not to mention toon-ish powerup graphics so hardcore players could spot them across the map. And a dumbed-down lighting model .. Q2 had realtime radiosity lighting, and people bitched about fuzzy shadows. Well look the hell around: if there's more than one light in the room, I guarantee your damn shadow is fuzzy. Running speed in Q2 was more realistic, though I'll grant that needed to be cranked up a bit for gaming effect.
Hell, the assault rifle in Q2 even had muzzle climb that you had to fight. Not that any of the other weapons were terribly realistic, but I thought that was still a nice touch.
I am no longer wasting my time with slashdot
I'm about as hardcore video game player as they come. I don't play Quake 3, because it doesn't have a ladder/ranking system like Halo 2. Also the weapons are imbalanced. No one is going to run around with the gatling nail gun when they can just pick up a rocket launcher or rail gun. I don't play it because of these reasons. Perfect my ass.
God spoke to me.