The Initiative’s Perfect Dark
- Thread starter Nervusbreakdown
- Start date
he works for neither company
Didn’t the producer (before he went back to insou) say they were far enough into the project that he let his daughter play their latest build last year?
This is true lol, who knows how much of a build it was, apart from all the dev hiring they're very hush hush about the whole thing really so it must be in early stages still?
He's conflating things and he's only talking about Japanese companies , CD is owned by a publisher (Japanese company) it's not an independent studio, they are co-developing a game not just lending a helping hand or taking on assets and they've never done this before. It's not a normal move but at the same time if the Initiative is supposed to be a small AA studio they would obviously need help if they are being asked to make a AAA game unless they grow the studio. There is nothing wrong with it btw so I don't know why some people are getting defensive over it on twitter, the studio wasn't meant for AAA work to begin with.
I just read that a co founder who was also the lead designer for PD left the Initiative in February so that explains a lot.
So PDZ is the only one in the series I've played, but it was definitely a favorite of the 360 era. I remember the first time playing it and being amazed by how damn good it looked for a launch title. So many hours playing that online. For the new one I'm gonna need another nightclub scene with this song:
They should not need help.
It's a supposed all star cast and CD isn't noteworthy.
Jeff Scrub and his biased can't be taken serious anyway.
All of his examples before had nothing to do with this situation, I don't think he actually knows anything.
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70 people to make an AAA game? Even Santa Monica hires out and their team is substantially bigger.
When did David Jaffe suddenly become the most important insight into the development of the new Perfect Dark game? I'm seeing Twitter posts and YouTube videos of his all over this thread.
I reckon they just had trouble hiring big talent, CD is pretty noteworthy tomb raider games were great, plus we don't know what exactly they're helping out with.
He's not but he explains why this isn't the same as outsourced for assets the way some others are saying and he's also explaining why Grubb doesn't know what he's talking about. People are getting defensive for some reason and trying to act like this kind of thing happens all the time but it doesn't. There is nothing wrong with them doing this either, the Initiative isn't a big enough studio to make a AAA game on it's own to begin with.
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A co-founder of the studio who was also the design director left in February to go back to Insomniac, not sure how much impact that had but I'm sure it wasn't great timing.
Initially he left because of personal things, a loss in the family and depression. Then some short time after he announced he joined insomniac again. He, Drew Murray, was very confident in the team and excited to see it’s completion.
I decided to watch Jaffe's videos. While he's saying this rarely happens, he does also say when it does happen, one wouldn't want to publicize it the way The Initiative has. Putting those two thoughts together, it seems like this could possibly happen somewhat regularly, but kept confidential. Most likely under a single publisher.
The example that comes to mind most readily is how the boss fights of Deus Ex: Human Revolution were outsourced to Grip Entertainment. However, this was only made public after the sole unanimous criticism of the game was the design of the boss fights.
Speaking of Human Revolution, Crystal Dynamics got a "special thanks" in the credits. The game did utilize the Crystal Dynamics engine, though Eidos Montreal was also a new studio during that game's development. Looking back I do wonder if there was more support being offered than just game engine documentation.
Crystal Dynamics also appears in the "special thanks" section of the credits for "Batman: Arkham Asylum" which used the Unreal 3 Engine. It's possible that Rocksteady just needed some tried and true platforming code, but I couldn't find anything specifying the level of assistance CD provided.
Lastly, and this is going way back, but Bungie did provide assistance in the development of Brute Force. The only confirmed design-work I could find has to do with the character controls and all sorts of movement code. Not surprising, because it controlled almost identically to Halo. If only they hired a writer and a decent level designer.
None of this really means anything for Perfect Dark. In Human Revolution's case, shared development both helped and hurt the game. Batman: Arkham Asylum certainly didn't seem to suffer in any area. Brute Force with bad controls would have been almost unsalvageable. Ultimately the proof will be in the pudding, though it was more fun to think about than I would have expected.
That's fine, never said he left for any bad reason but losing someone in a lead position from a project when you are already understaffed isn't a good thing.
Special thanks isn't the same as being announced as a co developer in a project that is still very early in development. Huge studios outsource for help with creating assets etc there is nothing special about that but here CD is taking a much larger role than is typical for anything like this. I don't know why people are fighting that it's the truth, there is nothing wrong with it and it doesn't mean it'll be a bad game it's just a small studio that's not able to make the kind of game they are being tasked with making on their own. It's either this or go out and hire hundreds of people and then let most of them go when the project is over, this isn't meant to be a AAA studio from the sound of it. The Bungie example doesn't really fit because they were a Microsoft owned studio at that point and it's totally normal for studios that are part of the same company to help each other out with tech etc.
And when you already are a very small studio and one of the leads on the game leaves that's a setback, it's not like an animator left or something although with a studio this size anyone leaving will have some impact but one of the top people? yeah that's going to set you back a little bit.
Why The Initiative hired Crystal Dynamics to help with Perfect Dark
Perfect Dark is a key game for Microsoft, and developer The Initiative is working with Crystal Dynamics to create the game. Here's why.
venturebeat.com
Why The Initiative hired Crystal Dynamics to help with Perfect Dark
Perfect Dark is a key game for Microsoft, and developer The Initiative is working with Crystal Dynamics to create the game. Here's why.
He makes a good point about developer cohesion. Had they just employed hundreds of devs, the chances of them working well together on the first project isn’t great. Now they’ve bought onboard a large number of devs used to working together. Sounds like a great move to me.
Them stating this proves that it was odd for them getting help.Why The Initiative hired Crystal Dynamics to help with Perfect Dark
Perfect Dark is a key game for Microsoft, and developer The Initiative is working with Crystal Dynamics to create the game. Here's why.
Initiative on paper is a ALL STAR cast of developers.
Might take the title for XB's best from The Coalition.
Can't wait for this game and future titles.
He's misrepresenting what's going on, the announcement said "co developers" not support studio, you don't pay another publisher to use one of their larger AAA studios to come in and support your much smaller team and then announce them as co developers if they are just a support studio. Again there is nothing wrong with this happening btw if the studio wasn't big enough and couldn't get big enough in time to actually get this game made this was the right move, hard to believe it's scheduled for 2023 if they are just now starting to ramp up production but we'll see.Why The Initiative hired Crystal Dynamics to help with Perfect Dark
Perfect Dark is a key game for Microsoft, and developer The Initiative is working with Crystal Dynamics to create the game. Here's why.