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Games That Could Have Been
Gamespot, to accompany a piece on the art of pitching a game has up a companion article on a few good pitches from talented developers that never quite made it into games. My favorite of the three, from Will Wright: "I've always been fascinated with airships, and I wanted to do a game about the Hindenburg. And it was originally conceived as a cross between Myst and a flight simulator, if you can imagine that. You basically wake up on the Hindenburg. You're all alone. It's flying toward Lakehurst, New Jersey. You can walk anywhere on the ship. You can turn lights on and off. You can steer. You can adjust the engines. But every time you come into Lakehurst, it blows up. And you have to figure out why, and it becomes like this weird mystery flight simulator thing. I'd still love to do that."
Isn't that just like the Titanic game? http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/titanicadventureoutoftime/review.html?tag=tabs;reviews
I'm sure Wil Wright would've made it more fun though.
That's actually a good read. Wish it was longer, though. Good insight into some very interesting ideas for games! Wright's idea sounds awesome...wish that could actually be made.
In the last idea they say they have the code there, they were demoing it to publishers and stuff... Why not just open source the code and let the community run with it?
If the idea was dropped, if there is no way you're gonna get that game published and make money from it, why waste all those man-hours than went into producing that prototype and instead open source it and let people have fun with it.
"There's a man of the wing of this airplane! " - John Valentine
... for a game that could have been, Freespace 3. Way to leave us all hanging Volition :(
At least the game was continued by a source code release and player designed campaigns, still it would have been nice to get an official conclusion to the story.
Murphey's fighting Occam, and we're in the stands.
Interesting article - I wish they'd swapped some of those for titles like... Master of Orion III Civilization III Which games do you think should never have been made?
And I don't mean the Bethesda one, either.
... from latest research, was sabotaged by a crewmember recruited by anti-Nazi Germans associated with the German Communist Party. Goering and company felt that sabotage was politically unacceptable, so the conclusion was suppressed at the time, and some fanciful notion of hydrogen 'leakage' was substituted. The Americans went along with it.
HAH! Got it in first.
That's one game I still want to see.
Think Total War (which when I first heard about it, I thought already was what I wanted; big bummer that was), but with the 'mission' stuff (spying, asassination, etc) done as a FPS, like Deus Ex or Thief (although I never played that), instead of the lame 'watch the movie and wait till the computer has rolled the dice'.
That combination of battlefield simulation, resource management and small scale personal actions (stealing, killing, spying) would be totally awesome. And all the technology is there already. Just combing Total War with the Half-life (or Unreal, or Thief, or...) engine and voila! Instant hit! Well, I'd shelf over 50 euros for that (which I think is too much money for most games out there).
Anyone who has played Sword of the Samurai (old EGA (or VGA?) game on the PC) should know what I'm talking about.
xchg
jmp emailMe
One would be excused for thinking this post is a trolling (which, if you will remember, is tactically trying to stir up trouble for the troll's own amusement). Though I wouldn't mind if I DO stir up emotions, my goal isn't entertainment for myself or anyone.
Okay, the substance of the post:
Let us not forget that Gamespot should still be shunned continually until it at least somehow repents for firing Jeff Gerstmann. Gamepost denied the rumors, Jeff hasn't, and frankly the facts of the matter speak for themselves.
It may well be a fine article (I wouldn't be a Slashdotter if I actually READ it), but we shouldn't forget the apartment policy (of at least willingness) of censorship - especially not just because it's been a little while, and "who cares anymore?".
Sure, I'm blowing it out of proportion, but you should be righteously angry to a relative degree.
Property is theft.
..Is to make a mix of Q3 arena and wipeout. The arena it self could be like a great big skateboard/BMX park with ramps and stuff, and you zoom about in a wipeout style hovercraft and try to shoot down your opponents. Stuntcar racer meets tanks, on speed.
It is from Gamespot. i.e. the Gamespot that just fired the senior editor for a negative review tone. Don't give them any hits, they don't deserve it.
You can walk anywhere on the ship. You can turn lights on and off. You can steer. You can adjust the engines. But every time you come into Lakehurst, it blows up. And you have to figure out why, and it becomes like this weird mystery flight simulator thing. I'd still love to do that.
Gosh, Will, I'd like to play that too!
If you've never been modded as "flamebait" or "troll," you've never tried to argue a minority viewpoint here!
"Let us not forget that Gamespot should still be shunned continually until it at least somehow repents for firing Jeff Gerstmann."
I whole heartly agree. This may be offtopic, Slashdot mods, but it is important. As a news site, Slashdot should stand against Gamespot's tactics as they are entirely unacceptable.
Remake Shiny's Sacrifice for the Nintendo DS.
Until then, I'd love to see Portal: the Flash Version ported to the DS.
Nothing for 6-digit uids?
Whats the difference between Rush Limbaugh and the Hindenburg?
Ones a flaming Nazi gasbag and the other is a dirigible.
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
- If the game is based on a franchise / IP they licensed, they might be unable to release those rights.
- If based on a franchise / IP they own, they might be unwilling to release it due to concerns they might allow anyone to create and publish derivative works.
- If they game uses an engine or other software they've licensed from other companies, they might be unable to release it.
- If the game uses an engine or other software the company considers to be part of its competitive advantage, they might be unwilling to release it to the general public when it might be used in later games and/or licensed to other companies.
- If the game hasn't been well screen, both in terms of content seen in the game as well as information in the source code, there could be negative PR if certain types of elements are found. (eg, the potentially offensive character that one of the artists put in as a joke, a frustrated programmer with a paragraph of derogatory comments about his manager, or something similar to 'hot coffee').
- If the code is cleaned up and finished, it could potentially compete with the other games that the company might release in the future.
All you need is one unlicensed song left in there, and you can expect to be sued out of existence.The process of vetting the software for release to make sure it's clean -- that you're allowed to release it, and that it won't adversely impact the company is something that takes time and resources, and although might earn them points with some members of the community would likely piss off their publishers and distributors. It's unrealistic to expect that it's 'free' for a company to make their their demo open source, and that it'd be in their best interest to do it.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
The mousepad next to me is a promo item from the Babylon 5 space combat simulator game-- neat faux-3d thing with Starfuries that move around EAS Agamemnon depending on what angle you look at it. I even played a development version of the game at E3 back in '98.
It still never made it to market...
Septerra Core
I think this game might have won an award, but I've always been under the impression that it was underrated. Apart from one random bug, my only complaint about this game is that it felt a little short (possibly heightened by the epic nature of the storyline). However, I think the game makes for a nice RPG. If you like good stories but don't like having to pick skill points, then this a game worth looking into.
Vampire The Masquerade - Bloodlines
This game was one of the best games I have ever played. The story was gripping (the end seemed abrupt, but I sort made sense out of it). The amount of choice that the game offers to player is staggering. The dialogue and voice-acting was convincing, and at times very funny (Jack). The in-game music and soundtrack was very well done. I still remember events from the game - the haunted hotel with the exploding vases and crashing elevators still creeps me out, as does being chased by a nigh-invincible werewolf. I think the game suffered since it was rushed to make it into stores for Christmas. Hell, there are times I wish that the game was an MMORPG just because it would be so different.
your right, that joke is funnier.
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
Just as any developer builds their skills with coding, graphics engines, world builders, etc. they should work on their people/sales/pitch skills, too. This seems to be rampant through all industries, but sticks out like a sore thumb in IT. Part of the reason many people enter the IT field is because they don't want to deal with people. Putting a developer in front of a crowd and asking them to speak is like throwing the deer in front of the headlights.
It's been offered here before, but I'll offer it again for any of you would-be proposal spokespeople or anyone that simply wants to improve their confidence, communication and leadership skills: http://www.toastmasters.org/ It's inexpensive, doesn't take much time and can make a world of difference in just a few months.
Please, before you throw yourself to the wolves, find a club and let them help you.
I worked on the team that did Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future for the Sega Dreamcast (later ported to the PS2) They were looking for a next title and I wrote up a game design to use the same underwater engine and create a submarine racing game. Something set in the future sort of along the lines of Wipeout only underwater with full 3 dimensions of freedom (pass above, below, or to the side of your opponent etc.)
Unfortunately they made a REALLY bad racing game for the PS1 instead.
Introducing Microsoft Vacuum 1.0 The first Microsoft product that doesn't suck.
I remember some years back, a game called Dawn that was slated to me a mmorpg. The company had a good 200-300k people registered on the forums that were all expecting this great new 'EQ' like mmorpg to break the market, with pvp, destroyable terrain, towns. They kept this up for a year or so before announcing they were doing the game as a RTS. Dare we mention duke nukem never?
~DF
Forget the rest of the scientific method, they barely use controls most of the time.
They also seem to enjoy coming to conclusions based on single premises.
This could have been amazing.......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQHyg6nFpAY&feature=related
I Like Pie...
Aside from a bit of bugginess, both of these games were excellent and under appreciated.
I thought I was the only one completely freaked out by the haunted hotel in VtM:BL.
This is sort of a weird issue that seems to come up whenever someone has a game concept, but suddenly become intimidated by the industry and the overwhelming quality of the content they generate. The fact is, you don't need a huge team of developers and technicians to produce a great game. You just need a good idea and a couple people with enough determination and skill to make it happen.
Heck, look at the first person shooter genre. It was initially brought to life by only two people who loved to play games. Now, it's a multi-billion dollar industry and the resulting engines produced each year often creates the standards for which all other games are judged.
Nowadays, you don't even need to be a programming genius capable of juggling dozens of complex equations to produce content. You can now get fairly simple to use game development tools, such as Unity to design prototypes and tweak things until it finally feels right. Even if it doesn't end up being the final product, having a working prototype can make a huge difference in even pitching your concepts to other, larger developers. (The ones in charge of such decisions often need visual aids beyond just a storyboard or sketch, since they likely aren't developers themselves.)
If not anything else, even Flash can work in a pinch for prototyping or development.
8==8 Bones 8==8
"In the last idea they say they have the code there, they were demoing it to publishers and stuff... Why not just open source the code and let the community run with it?"
And why should one presume that "the community" will do anything with this release? Let alone anything good. Me thinks you like buzzwords.
"If the idea was dropped, if there is no way you're gonna get that game published and make money from it, why waste all those man-hours than went into producing that prototype and instead open source it and let people have fun with it."
Never heard the saying "try, try, try again" have you?
I disagree, it was too long and for all that, didn't have any surprising twists. Maybe you can't read it, it's in the delivery: try imagining it in Richard Pryor's voice.
Play Command HQ online