Videogame News

[chase210]

That looks fun.

[skidoosh]

Right. I doubt Activision really care about BF1, but this did make me laugh:



It was the "Press F to pay respects" that got me.

[Alex79]

I wasn't really sure where to put this, but wanted to share it. I used to be a big fan of the Cracked website, comedy gold articles like bootleg toys still make me laugh now. I don't read it as often any more, it's not as good as it used to be, but I still check it from time to time.

Today I read this : http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-ways-you- ... -industry/

What an absolute crock of shit! It annoyed me more than it should have, but it's been written by an absolute tool who doesn't have the first idea what he's talking about! Utter drivel.

[Lego Solo]

Holy crap I've never read something so insulting that it may as well have reached out and slapped me for apparently being immature for liking games. And could some please explain what the following is meant to mean:

"Many industry series, like Fallout or BioShock, draw heavy inspiration from films, but seem to be recreations of action movies as explained to them via a game of telephone a week or two afterward by a kid abusing Ritalin and Monster".

I keep re reading it but I just can't figure it out? It must be because my brain has been destroyed because I don't read books!!

What a twat!!!!

[skidoosh]

Yeah. I wouldn't take much notice of things like that. They're normally written to get a rise out of people. In fact the average age of the "gamer" sits somewhere around thirty four I seem to remember. And why is that I hear you ask? Because we have the disposable income.

[chase210]

Looks nice. Hawaii! Rowlett is cool. Edit - 23rd in the EU. Thats quite irritating.

[mikeleddy83]

Agreed, looks great! I'm yet to complete a Pokémon game but I still have Y ready to go. Out of curiosity how old are you Chase? My younger brother is just 3 years younger than me, likes not much besides FIFA and football manager yet 4 Pokémon games count for about 50% of all the games he's ever completed. He even asked me for my psp to emulate red/blue a year back and I'm almost certain it returned with at least 30 hours clocked.

[chase210]

I'm 23

[Flabyo]

Incoming!

[Flabyo]

Eurogamer have put up a piece on the inside history of Lionhead.

I didn't contribute (but would've if they'd asked), but a LOT of people I worked with did (mostly anonymously).

What I can say is that while it's a really long read, it's absolutely worth it. There's things talked about in there that I never thought would ever be made public.

It has triggered me somewhat, things I'd forgotten or mostly repressed, but I some things needed to be said.

[Suits]

I didn't contribute (but would've if they'd asked), but a LOT of people I worked with did (mostly anonymously).

Hey man, did you work at Lionhead ??

A close mate of mine did and worked on Fable 3 as a level designer, he's now at Defiant Development (Hand of Fate) in Australia.

[Flabyo]

Hey man, did you work at Lionhead ??

A close mate of mine did and worked on Fable 3 as a level designer, he's now at Defiant Development (Hand of Fate) in Australia.

I did, I was there for just over 10 years. Worked as simulation coder on Black and White 2, then did enemy AI on Fable 2, Fable 3 and Fable:The Journey.

Chatted a little about it on the first episode of Sound of Play I guested on (13?)

[Suits]

I did, I was there for just over 10 years. Worked as simulation coder on Black and White 2, then did enemy AI on Fable 2, Fable 3 and Fable:The Journey.

Cool man.

Does the name Liam Hill ring any bells ??

[Flabyo]

Yeah, vaguely. I tended not to have much interaction with the level design team on Fable 3, most of my interaction was with the creature modellers and animators, and then later the quest scripting teams. When I did need to work with them, it was usually just with the lead, Charlton (mostly me communicating how certain things would need to be set up to work with the AI, setting out the rules Charlie would need to disseminate)

[gallo_pinto]

That was a really good and interesting article. Sounds like it was an intense (both for good and for not so good) place to work.

[Suits]

Ah, sweet. That's a cool little link then.

Your role seems complicated .

Liam's main part of the project was that he was part of the design team for the quest where you were shrunk down and placed into a model replica of the town. It was one of the more memberable quest from the game.

He and his wife came over for my wedding last month.

He's currently working on Hand of Fate 2.

[gallo_pinto]

Flabyo, if you don't mind me asking the question, I was curious about something in the article. There's been a lot of talk recently about crunch in the games industry and while this article talks about the long hours at Lionhead, it goes out of its way several times to talk about how voluntary the long hours were and how people wanted to work the long shifts because they believed in the project. Does that square with your experience there?

[Flabyo]

Yes and no. I can't really go into it, there are some bridges that I still won't burn even now. (I'm never that comfortable talking about my time there 'on the record').

[skidoosh]

Worked as simulation coder on Black and White 2, then did enemy AI on Fable 2, Fable 3 and Fable:The Journey.

Chatted a little about it on the first episode of Sound of Play I guested on (13?)

WOW! Now that's interesting! Where do you start from when it comes to AI and simulation? I've done some AI in Python but that was on top of an existing framework to see if I could make a bot that could defeat another bot created by someone else.

[gallo_pinto]

Yes and no. I can't really go into it, there are some bridges that I still won't burn even now. (I'm never that comfortable talking about my time there 'on the record').

Completely understand.