How a Quake 3 Mod Team Turned Into a Successful Studio

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.'"

Comments

Ever read Dickins, son?

[jollyreaper]

"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!"

Re:Ever read Dickins, son?

[Chris Burke]

Did you know that the original line is from a Pink Floyd song titled "Another Brick in the Wall"? Pink Floyd is a famous psychedelic rock band that started in the 60s. You might be wondering which member of the band is named Pink, but the band isn't actually named for one of its members or any real person at all, similar to Jethro Tull or Dave Matthew's Band. However in the movie "The Wall", which features music from the album of the same name and includes the line about meat and pudding, the lead character is actually named Pink.

Just thought you might want to know a little more about the source of the line that you found humorously modified. You can google "Pink Floyd" if you'd like to learn more.

Re:Ever read Dickins, son?

[gEvil (beta)]

So wait a second. It's from a song? Can you tell me who it's by?

Quake Wars ended up great

[mahsah]

It was plagued by bad launch decisions though -- no VOIP, in game advertising (which seems to be gone), somewhat outdated graphics, poor performance, etc.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

ETQW

[pak9rabid]

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.

Re:ETQW

[Colonel Korn]

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...

[kalirion]

I'm guessing they didn't visit EA.

Great work from them

[DesScorp]

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.