38 Studios
- Thread starter Tmac
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I can punch a whole in ut theroy..there was fire long before caveman. So im inclined to go with moor.
Gavinmad
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Take a fucking pill. Utnayan is being perfectly civil. Moorgard's word isn't gospel just because he was a project insider.
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Gavinmad
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Once again, take a fucking pill kid. I didn't claim Utnayan's word was gospel either. If you can't debate a topic with grownups, how about you head over to screenshots?
Utnayan
I Love Utnayan he’s awesome
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I do not think Rolston would agree. Also, you painting the work accomplished on a project that was announced in 2007 (Blue Doc'd since Oblivion was launched) and worked on for 2 years, seeing the same assets in the trailers as we see in the game, from fully fleshed out towns, music, scripts, down to the entire combat system and it's mechanics - down to a tech demo, I would say is a punch in the gut to anyone that worked on this before, or after, acquisition. Given how it all played out at the end, I doubt anyone is grateful for being allowed to work on the project after THQ dumped them. These poor guys have had a string of bad luck. First 38 studios, and now Epic.
Wait, this doesn't make any sense. Ascendant always was, and always would have been, a third person action RPG. We all knew that right? Especially since the assets seen in the original screenshots were the same screenshots in the game shots that were PR'd. Ironically enough, this all vanished until 38 went defunct. Luckily it is all accessible again, including old ascendant game trailers and ad shots.
How does the dialogue carry over but the game lore is yours? Are you talking about delivery itself of the dialogue? In which I would heavily disagree with the 1st. All 38 did was take out the names and inject names/lore of what was being designed from the highest perch of RA Salvatore's name drops. The entire premise of Ascendant was turned into Reckoning. Right down to the very premise of ascendant to begin with. For example:
First, to be quite frank with you, the reason for the game being called Ascendant was just that. Having died and revived to be the hero.
With that said, I bolded the parts where 38 Studios just changed around some names, adjusted the world to reflect the 50,000 foot over view of a story overlay, and here is your new game.
I am sure they are great people. I know Rolston is for sure. But to say anything but the tail was wagging the dog in this venture is anything but being entirely honest. If anything, it protected 38 studios from the work that hadnotbeen done and, if only for a brief time, kept away the wondering eye of Rhode Island from wondering where their money had went. That did have to be reported on.
spronk
FPS noob
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No offense but the idea that Reckoning was under a "tight budget" seems insane, all accounts are the budget was somewhere around $45-55m? For a single player RPG that is not a sequel? Many of us have had jobs where the execs were clueless and it was fun as hell being in infinite money play-land, it almost never works out well.
I'm not going to argue about the subtleties of what happened with someone who wasn't there. I can understand the forming of different points of view, though. No doubt my perspective is slightly different from that of others who were there. History is written by the victor, but in this case there were no victors. So you can either believe what I say or not, it's up to you.
I certainly didn't boil BHG's work on Ascendant down to a tech demo. They had some really compelling stuff there, and they had built up a strong RPG team. But I also got to know those guys really well, and they're the ones who first told me that they hadn't really gone deep on the storyline yet. To assume that they had a ton of depth based on a few leaked videos and some general write-ups is a pretty big leap. I can tell you that the narrative guys were quite pleased with what they found when delving into our IP documentation.
And again as far as what the Amalur IP had or didn't have, I was there. I led the narrative team that wrote most of it. You can be dismissive of it if you want, but again you're basing that all on assumption. Buy me a drink sometime and I'll be glad to spend a couple hours giving you the story overview.
Ken is an awesome guy. I was very lucky to work alongside him, and we still keep in touch. Ultimately any job, no matter how it ends, becomes about the lessons you learn and the friendships you make. I was fortunate enough to come away with a lot on both counts.
I certainly didn't boil BHG's work on Ascendant down to a tech demo. They had some really compelling stuff there, and they had built up a strong RPG team. But I also got to know those guys really well, and they're the ones who first told me that they hadn't really gone deep on the storyline yet. To assume that they had a ton of depth based on a few leaked videos and some general write-ups is a pretty big leap. I can tell you that the narrative guys were quite pleased with what they found when delving into our IP documentation.
And again as far as what the Amalur IP had or didn't have, I was there. I led the narrative team that wrote most of it. You can be dismissive of it if you want, but again you're basing that all on assumption. Buy me a drink sometime and I'll be glad to spend a couple hours giving you the story overview.
Ken is an awesome guy. I was very lucky to work alongside him, and we still keep in touch. Ultimately any job, no matter how it ends, becomes about the lessons you learn and the friendships you make. I was fortunate enough to come away with a lot on both counts.
Utnayan
I Love Utnayan he’s awesome
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Well, that isn't what I am basing it on. But with that said, what they wanted to do from a story perspective, was done in the game. (Which also went with the art assets) The framework was there to give it a worldly meaning correct? So obviously they no longer had to worry about that. I would say they were more relieved than pleased with what they found. They could easily tie their ideas around the framework of a world in progress. But really, a lot of that was just names at that point. So input A$ was really the way it went.
Drinks sound pretty good. Have Smedley buy.
He rocks. And it's too bad what happened to that studio. I do not agree with what happened with KoA and the Ascendant acquisition and how it was led to make believe 38S did more than they really ever did on that game (Similar to how RA Salvatore was nothing more than a name drop) but I am sure you were able to learn a lot from him.
Hopefully the last two shenigans don't drive him from the industry in disgust. He is one of the few relic designers that manages to move his cheese.
I really have no problem with you having a different opinion, or not believing me, or whatever. But you're writing your posts as if you were there. You weren't. The things you say sound entirely plausible in broad strokes, but they're simply not accurate when it comes to the details. That's kind of your thing, and I get it, but I just think it should be represented properly.
You also don't know what Bob did or did not contribute. I do. Referring to him as a name drop shows disconnection from the facts.
These are interesting asides to you, anecdotes to share on a message board. But these were years of my life, people I spent countless hours with, a world and games that grew out of the hearts of those of us who were there. These things can't be easily distilled down to clever soundbites and snarky quips.
It all looked like a clown show from the outside; I get that, and nothing I write here will really change that, or lessen the derision and dismissal that will forever be the public legacy of 38 Studios. But those who were a part of it know the truth of how special it was and could have been. And ultimately that's probably why I wanted to speak up now. I've moved on in my career, but I care enough about the people involved and the good work that we did to say my two bits.
That drink sounds better and better...
Tmac
Adventurer
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