n3rfed

In Which I Briefly Return From Work And Twitter

The super secret MMO being worked on by a super secret team that included Scott Jennings has been laid off.

Mist still surrounds the project and its details, but Matthew Weigel (also now currently looking for a job) had this to say;

For the last year, I've been working on an unannounced strategy MMO based on an IP I can't talk about.

And;

...and then I worked on an unannounced and now canceled project for 2K Games as part of their former Austin office.

Strategy MMO? 2K Games?

Sid Meier's Gettysburg: The MMO. Believe.

(Good luck, guys)

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Edit:

Some more information courtesy of Jon Jones' LinkedIn:

Art Outsourcing Manager

2K Games Austin

(Public Company; TTWO; Computer Games industry)

September 2008 — October 2009 (1 year 2 months)

• Worked on a very small incubator team that was developing a pre-production prototype for an MMO strategy title.

• I joined the team to develop a robust art outsourcing pipeline from the ground up to prepare to outsource up to 80% of the game’s total art assets, to find and test outsourcing vendors, selected an art studio to develop a great deal of concept art (everything from avatar characters to ground units to different cultures’ architecture to large, splashy marketing pieces), to work with the art director to develop a unique art style, cast a dragnet across various art schools and online forums to find and hire an art intern which I then brought aboard and helped manage, and also created art myself where needed.

• In addition to the management and direction aspects of my role, over the course of the project I also designed a fully functional and robust morph target \ wire parameter-driven fully customizable player avatar creation system based in 3DSMAX, developed the overall design of the city layouts throughout the various ages of history, designed a fully modular and customizable system of player throne rooms they can outfit with items they win or buy in the game, modeled, textured, rigged and facial-rigged characters, and created a series of low polygon highly optimized building models with a small set of textures that can be reused across that nation’s entire series of buildings appropriate to that age.

Wait, hold it. Zoom in.

...everything from avatar characters to ground units to different cultures’ architecture...developed the overall design of the city layouts throughout the various ages of history...and created a series of low polygon highly optimized building models with a small set of textures that can be reused across that nation’s entire series of buildings appropriate to that age.

I didn't want to say Civilization before, but... Civilization?

YEEAAAAHHH!!!

 

(Facebook won?)

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Edit 2:

Dan Magaha's LinkedIn provides a little more information:

Founder / Studio GM / Sr. Producer

2K Games Austin

(Public Company; TTWO; Computer Games industry)

September 2008 — October 2009 (1 year 2 months)

Pitched and founded a new 2K Games incubation studio in Austin to prototype a MMO adaptation of an existing franchise. I recruited the team, managed the establishment of the studio and set the overall direction of the project, managing relationships with the IP holder and 2K Games corporate. As the company’s only source of MMO expertise, we were chartered with the tasks of educating the company on issues relating to MMO development and market strategy and given the authority to determine how best to adapt the franchise into an MMO.

In less than eight months of development, our team of ten developers built a working, custom multiplayer client and server prototype from scratch. The prototype included numerous game systems and a rudimentary 3D engine using Gamebryo. The team also developed an iconic visual style for the game which took the IP in a bold new direction that was designed to favor low system requirements and attract players familiar with highly stylized Asian-inspired MMO’s. We drafted whitepapers and provided detailed financial projections, staffing plans and market assessments.

No, I Won't Say "Tweet". Goddammit.

In an effort to breath some kind of life into this blog here, I've added a link to my Twitter feed over in the column that way ---------------------------------------------------------------------------->

I'm updating it more than writing here, so maybe the 4 of you that still check this site regularly might find it worthwhile for at least a few seconds.

This place isn't forgotten. Once my current project cools down, time will be put aside. I miss you.

Watch That First Step, It's A Doozy

Braid McQuaid gives the first part in a series of Vanguard post-mortems.

"The first mistake that would have a serious impact later in development was the verbal agreement with Microsoft that Vanguard was to be a first rate, AAA title...

...So the moral of the story is one that should have occurred to us:  get everything in writing, get it into the contract, because even a company like Microsoft can suddenly undergo significant changes to its management and teams."

Who says creative types don't make good managerial material?

Don't tell me how this ends. I'm sure the situation can only improve from here on in.

And Lo, The Third Seal Was Opened

McQuaid, Garriot and now Jacobs are free to roam the world.

So, um, hey guys. Want to come over to my garage for a game of table tennis or something? Maybe later, for shits and giggles, we can form a company. There will be a cheese plate.

Bug #4316: The Bug Reporting Tool Is Broken

Vanguard's developers recently needed to do a poll to tell them that, hey, maybe players would like some bug fixes to the notoriously rushed game instead of a new mount or two.

From the announcement thread:

Player - "Neph's list could be cut and pasted or a myriad of other threads could be picked apart... why this route? is there not an endless list in the /bug dialog sent by players in game?"

Developer - "This way we are hoping to get the most high profile bugs that the players want fixed right away. Digging through /bug does not tell us just how important or how many people are seeing this problem."

Which makes perfect sense because having a proper bug tracking tool is really not as effective as trawling through a thread where a small percentage of your players will post.

More Crystals, More Spawns, More Obsessing Over Mithra Buttocks

Since the trailer-induced brain explosions of "Final Fantasy XIV??" have subsided, some pieces of information have been making their way out and it seems the developers have leveled up:

+ "The developers attribute the long-lasting success of Final Fantasy XI to the Job System, and plan to learn from it and greatly expand off the concept."
+ "Career loners will be happy to know solo play is getting a lot more attention this time around."
+ "They laugh as they admit that "growth" in Final Fantasy XI would often amount to an endless cycle of shoot-pull-kill, shoot-pull-kill.  The new MMO will focus on the variety and accessibility of methods to grow one's character.  This includes an emphasis on attracting people who are not as familiar with online games with a smooth progression of content."

My biggest reason for looking forward to FFXIV and that'll have me buying vast quantities of whatever drink/toy/fake sword/date sim marketing product that is pushed out with the game's release?

No PlayOnline.

And there goes half my hits.

I Camped This Sentry For 18 Hours And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt

You know, just because MMOs and RPGs have sold a few copies doesn't mean that one system that may work there will carry across to another genre.

Right, Valve ?

(If you are going to add a new system that does away with a familiar system that's been in place for over a year, it's a good idea to explain how it works on your, like, official blog or something that people have been checking all week)

Feel My Force

This can't end well.

Who is to say that if it can happen in the middle of a zombie apocalypse that it can't happen in a galaxy far, far away?

So, remember kids. Homosexuality in Star Wars, no! Incest though, A-OK!

That Time Of The Year We Know As "Blizzard Fools Day"

Whilst the Dance Battle System is smile-worthy, the forum prank is something humanity can get behind.

I'll Take BioWare For $100, Alex.

Lum's off to a new job.

I'm guessing it's a case of a mate helping out a mate. I'll take 5-2 odds.