Big publishers go through several steps when launching a new title. They do market analysis, competitive product comparisons, greenlight sessions, profit and loss statements and so on. Basically, lots and lots of paperwork that mostly tries to compare the new product against already existing titles. It's easier that way.
How do most game concepts start? "Super Killer Frenzy Shooter is a cross between Quarter-Life 3 and ReallyFarOutCry, with an RTS component based on..." Even game developers are constantly comparing games to other games by saying this is a little of that, and a little of this, or just like game X but with feature Y. I can only imagine that other creative industries do the same (movies come to mind.)
This is not just the way big publishers do business. A lot of pitches I've seen from smaller developers include how they are different or better than a list of already released games. Mostly popular games.
Most game companies are out to make money. Usually so they can continue to make games and not end up on the dole. So, we tend to look at what is popular and selling. It's very risky, especially with the game development budgets these days, to try something brand new. It still happens, it just doesn't happen as much as the early 8-bit days when it was literally one guy in the garage doing all the design, coding and art. Unless you look at the shareware, PDA and demo scenes where small teams and individuals are still making games there.
Sequels are popular with publishers because a) they tend to cost less to develop since you can use assets/engines/design from the first game, b) if the first game was popular, the sequel _usually_ sells well unless it's a bad game, c) you can get more press since you don't have to sell the magazines on a completely brand new concept that they are not sure will appeal to their market and d) you find it easier to get "buy-in" from your internal sales and marketing staff when dealing with a known property.
I don't think the games industry is non-creative, but we've definitely matured and tend to take less risks overall. Sequels and derivitive products are a way of reducing that risk.
Going overseas for ports or original game development is not nearly a new thing. This has been happening for quite some time.
My first personal experience was with "Out of this World" back in the early 90s (92-3ish). The original game was done in France. (I guess you can say it was actually an import into the US.) The Windows 3.1 version was done by a Russian company.
I've seen many games started up in Canada, Australia and Eastern Europe because of the exchange rate of the dollar. All this occured in the early 90s.
It's also been common to outsource concept art, models, animations, movies, music (especially if you want an orchestral score, eastern european orchestras are cheap compared to US ones), and, yes, even programming for sometime.
There are plenty of good development houses in Europe that have been making games for American publishers for years.
It's less common to go to Japan and Asia for US published titles, but it happens occasionally.
I don't see any major change in the way we (the games industry) do overseas development, but I don't see the entire industry of course.
That info aside, I know some of the people working on this and they are truly passionate fans of the book. I know nothing about the musical itself, but I'm more than willing to remain open-minded about it's quality until I learn more.
ObDisclosure: I work on Tolkien licensed products.
> also, best answer to spam, don't click on the links in it, don't read it, just delete it, if it wasn't profitable they wouldn't send it out.
This doesn't do anything already. What is it? 1/10 of 1% or something like that actually buy something from spam e-mail. The companies that make money from spam don't care if you buy anything. If we don't buy from spam, the companies that _hire_ the spammers don't make money, but the spammers have already been paid. All it takes is a few idiot people to hire spammers for the whole system to perpetuate itself.
Not scheduled for release for another year or so. This is actually the third attempt to make a Middle-earth MMP. We've been in production for a while now, and the game is approaching alpha.
"There are several good posts about the programming issues etc., but why are so many mods wasting their mod points modding up so called "funny" posts?"
Because humor is one way for humans to deal with tragedy.
I'm not sure if there will be a PS13 version of The Great Escape, but the PS2 version should be out later this year:
http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/greatescape/
As technology progresses, the stories will still remain the same. The Hollywood remakes that we've been subjected to for the last 40-50 years have accelerated recently. Perfectly reasonable that the concept of remakes will jump to different medias in increasing numbers as well.
* Give the phone to a young child (I use my four year old. He loves to talk on the phone. Can't say a whole heck of a lot, but he loves to talk!) * Talk for a few moments, and then place the phone down -- without hanging up. Check back occasionally, you'd be surprised how long they'll stay on the line. * Ask for their home phone number so you can call them back later... Much later. When they say they won't give it out, ask them what gives them the right to call you then. * Get an air horn. Use liberally. * Talk for a while. Practice a foreign language. Make one up. When they start to question what you're doing, say you'll be right back after you take your medicine. * I've asked them what they think about their job, and how they feel when they get unsolicited phone calls. Some of them actually turn out to be human. * Ask to speak to their supervisor. Ask to be removed from their calling list. If the supervisor gives you grief, ask for his/her boss and so on. * If it's a newspaper calling, I ask if they can bring up cnn.com on their computer. I point out that millions of trees are dying each year and they still can't get me news as fast as the web.
I worked at Interplay at the time of Secret of Vulcan Fury.
DeForest Kelly was too ill by the time of the voice recording to actual record his lines. He never did record SoVF dialogue. They used a voice actor in his place.
The main reason SoVF was cancelled was:
a) Not enough progress had been made on the game due to a couple changes of directions in the design, change in management on the project and the typical delays associated with game development.
b) Budgetary reasons and the decline of the adventure game market. They had spent millions on the project, and it needed millions more to be completed (mostly due to art: lots and lots of animation time, and lots of rendering time). They did a basic P&L (profit and loss statement) and the project was not going to make money.
As cool as the project was, Interplay could not afford to develop a game that would automatically lose money over games that would only potentially lose money...:)
Just to be clear, the suit isn't over screenshots posted to the website, or screenshots used for reviews and previews. Those fall under Fair Use.
This is strictly about the 100% Unofficial Strategy Guides. They do not fall under Fair Use.
pax,
-Chris
I get a little steamed when I keep seeing things like "First great Star Trek PC Game?". I worked on SFC, played the rest of the Interplay Trek games, played the majority of the other Trek titles and I think it's utter rubbish.
Great Trek games:
Star Trek: 25th Anniversary
Star Trek: Judgment Rites
Star Trek: Starfleet Command
All of these were critical and sales successes. The first two are adventure games that captured the feel of the Original Series _perfectly_.
I often hear Final Unity praised.
And Elite Force certainly stands up to the challenge, as well.
Yes, there have been some stinkers (Ewww, Pinball, ewww!). But like all heavily used licenses, some are stinkers, some are good, most are average. The Star Trek curse -- isn't.
pax,
-Chris
Re:Thoughts from a Somalia veteran
on
Virtual War
·
· Score: 1
I can't hope to compete intellectually with those of you who have seen all the Star Trek episodes, ready all the political science books, and figured it all out.
Slashdot Mirror
Big publishers go through several steps when launching a new title. They do market analysis, competitive product comparisons, greenlight sessions, profit and loss statements and so on. Basically, lots and lots of paperwork that mostly tries to compare the new product against already existing titles. It's easier that way.
How do most game concepts start? "Super Killer Frenzy Shooter is a cross between Quarter-Life 3 and ReallyFarOutCry, with an RTS component based on..." Even game developers are constantly comparing games to other games by saying this is a little of that, and a little of this, or just like game X but with feature Y. I can only imagine that other creative industries do the same (movies come to mind.)
This is not just the way big publishers do business. A lot of pitches I've seen from smaller developers include how they are different or better than a list of already released games. Mostly popular games.
Most game companies are out to make money. Usually so they can continue to make games and not end up on the dole. So, we tend to look at what is popular and selling. It's very risky, especially with the game development budgets these days, to try something brand new. It still happens, it just doesn't happen as much as the early 8-bit days when it was literally one guy in the garage doing all the design, coding and art. Unless you look at the shareware, PDA and demo scenes where small teams and individuals are still making games there.
Sequels are popular with publishers because a) they tend to cost less to develop since you can use assets/engines/design from the first game, b) if the first game was popular, the sequel _usually_ sells well unless it's a bad game, c) you can get more press since you don't have to sell the magazines on a completely brand new concept that they are not sure will appeal to their market and d) you find it easier to get "buy-in" from your internal sales and marketing staff when dealing with a known property.
I don't think the games industry is non-creative, but we've definitely matured and tend to take less risks overall. Sequels and derivitive products are a way of reducing that risk.
Going overseas for ports or original game development is not nearly a new thing. This has been happening for quite some time.
My first personal experience was with "Out of this World" back in the early 90s (92-3ish). The original game was done in France. (I guess you can say it was actually an import into the US.) The Windows 3.1 version was done by a Russian company.
I've seen many games started up in Canada, Australia and Eastern Europe because of the exchange rate of the dollar. All this occured in the early 90s.
It's also been common to outsource concept art, models, animations, movies, music (especially if you want an orchestral score, eastern european orchestras are cheap compared to US ones), and, yes, even programming for sometime.
There are plenty of good development houses in Europe that have been making games for American publishers for years.
It's less common to go to Japan and Asia for US published titles, but it happens occasionally.
I don't see any major change in the way we (the games industry) do overseas development, but I don't see the entire industry of course.
There is an official website: www.thelordoftheringsmusical.com
That info aside, I know some of the people working on this and they are truly passionate fans of the book. I know nothing about the musical itself, but I'm more than willing to remain open-minded about it's quality until I learn more.
ObDisclosure: I work on Tolkien licensed products.
I'd put Seattle up there as well (Nintendo, Microsoft, Sierra, lots of 3rd party developers).
> also, best answer to spam, don't click on the links in it, don't read it, just delete it, if it wasn't profitable they wouldn't send it out.
This doesn't do anything already. What is it? 1/10 of 1% or something like that actually buy something from spam e-mail. The companies that make money from spam don't care if you buy anything. If we don't buy from spam, the companies that _hire_ the spammers don't make money, but the spammers have already been paid. All it takes is a few idiot people to hire spammers for the whole system to perpetuate itself.
[shameless plug]
n e.com
A Tolkien based MMP is in the works:
http://www.meo.com
http://www.middle-earthonli
Not scheduled for release for another year or so. This is actually the third attempt to make a Middle-earth MMP. We've been in production for a while now, and the game is approaching alpha.
[/shameless plug]
pax,
-Chris
"There are several good posts about the programming issues etc., but why are so many mods wasting their mod points modding up so called "funny" posts?"
Because humor is one way for humans to deal with tragedy.
I'm not sure if there will be a PS13 version of The Great Escape, but the PS2 version should be out later this year:
http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/greatescape/
As technology progresses, the stories will still remain the same. The Hollywood remakes that we've been subjected to for the last 40-50 years have accelerated recently. Perfectly reasonable that the concept of remakes will jump to different medias in increasing numbers as well.
Here's some of my tips (I use these):
* Give the phone to a young child (I use my four year old. He loves to talk on the phone. Can't say a whole heck of a lot, but he loves to talk!)
* Talk for a few moments, and then place the phone down -- without hanging up. Check back occasionally, you'd be surprised how long they'll stay on the line.
* Ask for their home phone number so you can call them back later... Much later. When they say they won't give it out, ask them what gives them the right to call you then.
* Get an air horn. Use liberally.
* Talk for a while. Practice a foreign language. Make one up. When they start to question what you're doing, say you'll be right back after you take your medicine.
* I've asked them what they think about their job, and how they feel when they get unsolicited phone calls. Some of them actually turn out to be human.
* Ask to speak to their supervisor. Ask to be removed from their calling list. If the supervisor gives you grief, ask for his/her boss and so on.
* If it's a newspaper calling, I ask if they can bring up cnn.com on their computer. I point out that millions of trees are dying each year and they still can't get me news as fast as the web.
I worked at Interplay at the time of Secret of Vulcan Fury.
:)
DeForest Kelly was too ill by the time of the voice recording to actual record his lines. He never did record SoVF dialogue. They used a voice actor in his place.
The main reason SoVF was cancelled was:
a) Not enough progress had been made on the game due to a couple changes of directions in the design, change in management on the project and the typical delays associated with game development.
b) Budgetary reasons and the decline of the adventure game market. They had spent millions on the project, and it needed millions more to be completed (mostly due to art: lots and lots of animation time, and lots of rendering time). They did a basic P&L (profit and loss statement) and the project was not going to make money.
As cool as the project was, Interplay could not afford to develop a game that would automatically lose money over games that would only potentially lose money...
pax,
-Chris
Any other condition on board which may lead to the spread of disease:
TO BE DETERMINED
I wonder if they ever have? :)
Just to be clear, the suit isn't over screenshots posted to the website, or screenshots used for reviews and previews. Those fall under Fair Use. This is strictly about the 100% Unofficial Strategy Guides. They do not fall under Fair Use. pax, -Chris
Thank you!
I get a little steamed when I keep seeing things like "First great Star Trek PC Game?". I worked on SFC, played the rest of the Interplay Trek games, played the majority of the other Trek titles and I think it's utter rubbish.
Great Trek games:
Star Trek: 25th Anniversary
Star Trek: Judgment Rites
Star Trek: Starfleet Command
All of these were critical and sales successes. The first two are adventure games that captured the feel of the Original Series _perfectly_.
I often hear Final Unity praised.
And Elite Force certainly stands up to the challenge, as well.
Yes, there have been some stinkers (Ewww, Pinball, ewww!). But like all heavily used licenses, some are stinkers, some are good, most are average. The Star Trek curse -- isn't.
pax,
-Chris
pax,