The Initiative Hires Former Kojima/Sony Santa Monica God Of War Level Designer And More

The thing I don't like about that is it sort of implies that the game is not hyper violent, if he's letting this little girl play it (unless he isn't a half decent parent, haha), which to me is a bit of a bummer...
 
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The thing I don't like about that is it sort of implies that the game is not hyper violent, if he's letting this little girl play it (unless he isn't a half decent parent, haha), which to me is a bit of a bummer...

I thought about that but Halo isn't a Mature game. Microsoft has plenty of dark, mature stuff with their Bethesda acquisition.
 
If whatever they're making is rated T for teen, that'll lower my limited expectations for sure. I just wanna know what they're making. Last I read the speculation is that they're basically creating their own game set within the Perfect Dark universe? I guess there's potential there, but there are plenty of alternatives I personally would've preferred. Bethesda's games certainly don't convey the level of brutal violent content I'd have hoped for though, but I was also hoping this game would be something in the vein of a God of War type game (as far as high level general quality level, not gameplay necessarily) as opposed to Ratchet and Clank which is sort of the ground level vibe I'll be assuming until we know otherwise...
 
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They got another one from ND:

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I was thinking; the more studios acquired and more other devs hear about how Microsoft allows essentially free reign in creativity and healthy work environments, the more talent they'll probably obtain from across the industry. All these acquisitions and healthy relationships are like a big welcome map to devs looking for a less stressful work environment.

I'd be tempted AF if I were a Dev.
 
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This guy's portfolio is impressive.

 
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This guy's portfolio is impressive.



so unreal engine use confirmed?
 
The segment about The Initiative starts at 1:45:45.

Small transcript, I recommend hearing the whole segment.
All those episodes of Black Mirror are linked to each other, they take place within the same universe. When I talked about The Initiative's game, I'm not saying it's exactly like Black Mirror, but it has that Black Mirror-like aspect to it.
...I know the word episodic has been thrown around
 
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Yes the Initiative's first game isn't going to be years away and it's not a Sony styled 40 hour narrative driven game. Due to that, there's going to be a lot of backlash. Think more along the lines of a couple large DLCs in the Perfect Dark universe. Thing is....with the senior leadership they've stolen, there has to be a vision, a challenge and ambition that is driving high level people there. I'm very intrigued because those are some really talented people that can take risks since the scope isn't going to be gigantic.
 
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  • Darrell Gallagher, studio head (Activision, Square Enix)
  • Annie Lohr, recruiter (Respawn, Treyarch)
  • Daniel Neuburger, game director (Tomb Raider series)
  • Drew Murray, lead designer (Sunset Overdrive)
  • Christian Cantamessa, cinematics director (Red Dead Redemption)
  • Brian Westergaard, director of production (God of War, Tomb Raider series)
  • Blake Fischer, director of narrative (Xbox)
  • Christine Thompson, narrative lead (Destiny 2)
  • Maxwell Morrison, QA lead
  • Chris O’Neill, lead level designer (God of War + Metal Gear Online)
  • Robert Ryan, senior systems designer (Motive + Naughty Dog)
  • Justin Perez, senior systems designer (Jedi: Fallen Order)
  • Kurt Loudy, senior systems designer (Id Software)
  • Ian Miller, senior designer (God of War)
  • Kai Zheng, principal level designer (God of War)
  • Ray Yeomans, senior designer (God of War & Tomb Raider series)
  • Jolyon Myers, principal world builder (Infinity Ward)
  • Nigel Loster, gameplay designer (The Coalition)
  • Daniel Steamer, lead technical designer (Crystal Dynamics)
  • Cristian Guzman, associate technical designer
  • Joey Tan, associate technical designer (Insomniac)
  • Tom Sherpherd, technical director (GTA V, Red Dead Redemption 2)
  • William Archbell, technical director (Riot Games, 343)
  • Christopher Ng, technical designer (Survios)
  • Cristian Guzman, associate technical director
  • Ben Diamond, lead systems engineer (Respawn, God of War III)
  • Cesar Castro, senior software engineer (EA Sports UFC, FIFA)
  • Hawar Doghramachi, senior graphics engineer (Naughty Dog)
  • Robert Marr, lead gameplay engineer (Cryptic Studios)
  • Anthony Silva, senior engineer
  • Yuka Murata, software engineer
  • Stephen Clayburn, principal lead online services engineer
  • Johal Gow, senior producer (Treyarch)
  • Victoria Miller, producer (PlayStation)
  • Irma Ward, associate producer
  • Jonathan Chavez, associate producer (Treyarch)
  • Ryan Duffin, gameplay animation director (BioWare, DICE)
  • Lee Davis, lead gameplay animator (Naughty Dog)
  • Jason Priest, lead artist (Insomniac)
  • Eric Persson, associate art director
  • Ryan Trowbridge, tech art director (Bend Studio)
  • Matt Corcoran, principal character artist (Jurassic World movie)
  • Sze Jones, principal character artist (Tomb Raider, Uncharted 4)
  • Tyler Thornock, principal technical animator (Naughty Dog)
  • Giovanni Martinez, senior environment artist (Insomniac)
  • Justin Walters, senior environment artist (Avalanche)
  • Pasquale Scionti, senior environment/lighting artist
  • Allyson Smyth, environment artist (DICE)
  • Sarah Swenson, environment artist (Naughty Dog)
  • Jaime Molina, environment artist (Infinity Ward)
  • Patrick Ward, 3D environment artist (Nexon)
  • Fabian Elmers, senior tech artist
  • Richard Burns, UI/UX lead (Forza Horizonseries)
  • Branford Williams, principal production designer (Daybreak)
  • Oliver Guiney, concept artist (Black Ops 4)
  • Isaac Yeram Kim, concept artist (Naughty Dog)
  • Victor Chavez, senior animator (Amazon Game Studios)
  • Arlington Cruz, animator
  • Sylvia Chambers, animator (Naughty Dog)
  • Lindsey McQueeney, HR manager (Google, Crystal Dynamics)
 
With such a roster I hope multiple projects not just PD are being worked on.
If naughty dog, playground games, obsidian, inxile, insomniac and pal could do it I’m sure they could too, granted most of said studios had at least three games before they ventured out into a new ip
 
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With such a roster I hope multiple projects not just PD are being worked on.
That's the rumor...but who knows for sure. They may have a smaller project in development much like many of their studios have side projects in addition to the main course. Could explain the mix up of rumors that kept bouncing between a full fledged Perfect Dark and a episodic 3rd person game in the same universe. Maybe they have both.
 
pasquale scionti - Senior Environment/Lightning Artist at The Initiative Xbox Studio




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