Ninja Theory's past struggles.
polycounter lvl 10
Been a fan of this game studio for a long time since the ascension of Heavenly sword which I enjoyed.After the release of DMC, clouded with so much controversy and critcism, they went quiet for a while.
Now they are back with a new game called Hellblade:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyaYDROciCw
Their strong points imo are cinematics, storytelling,character design and animation. Gameplay isn't their strong point to be honest. Their problem is finding good scenerios to based their gameplay on,enriching it and avoiding repetitive occurrences. Most times when playing their games, the story is what keeps u motivated to play on rather than the gameplay itself. Another problem is their stories are good, but they always fail to enrich it with more weapons, upgrades and most importantly other characters and enemies. Most of the time, u get a small group of characters and enemies thats it.
There is a lot I could go on about but I am going to end it there.
I happened to come across their blog:
http://www.hellblade.com/?p=16972
Here, Tammeen tells the struggles they have gone through as a team and the problems they have encountered.It is an interesting read. While I feel happy that they have been able to overcome so much. Something in that read caught by eye- RAZER;
http://vimeo.com/103043079
This is a previz of the concept they had.This is way more innovative that most of the games out there now.I really hoped they filed a copyright for it.This is way better than Destiny and has good grounds to compete and make good sales in the market.This would have been NT's big break into the industry. I hope some other company doesn't steal this idea before they come round to making this a reality. Seriously,this is good for business.
I am still a student atm,and I may never have worked in a game company or been a professional animator but I have always had a good eye for what would be successful and what would suck. I really wish I could join their team and help in anyway I could.When they announced Enslaved,I knew it wouldn't do well for a number of reasons.
There is a reason why Naughty Dog is successful, and that is bc,they always make sure there is a balance between all the areas that make up a good game.Once there is a tip in that balance, games begin to go in the wrong direction.
Though there is no gameplay for Hellblade yet,I am a little bit worried of how it is going to work. Razer on the otherhand is a unique, fresh and solid entry for NT.
Now they are back with a new game called Hellblade:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyaYDROciCw
Their strong points imo are cinematics, storytelling,character design and animation. Gameplay isn't their strong point to be honest. Their problem is finding good scenerios to based their gameplay on,enriching it and avoiding repetitive occurrences. Most times when playing their games, the story is what keeps u motivated to play on rather than the gameplay itself. Another problem is their stories are good, but they always fail to enrich it with more weapons, upgrades and most importantly other characters and enemies. Most of the time, u get a small group of characters and enemies thats it.
There is a lot I could go on about but I am going to end it there.
I happened to come across their blog:
http://www.hellblade.com/?p=16972
Here, Tammeen tells the struggles they have gone through as a team and the problems they have encountered.It is an interesting read. While I feel happy that they have been able to overcome so much. Something in that read caught by eye- RAZER;
http://vimeo.com/103043079
This is a previz of the concept they had.This is way more innovative that most of the games out there now.I really hoped they filed a copyright for it.This is way better than Destiny and has good grounds to compete and make good sales in the market.This would have been NT's big break into the industry. I hope some other company doesn't steal this idea before they come round to making this a reality. Seriously,this is good for business.
I am still a student atm,and I may never have worked in a game company or been a professional animator but I have always had a good eye for what would be successful and what would suck. I really wish I could join their team and help in anyway I could.When they announced Enslaved,I knew it wouldn't do well for a number of reasons.
There is a reason why Naughty Dog is successful, and that is bc,they always make sure there is a balance between all the areas that make up a good game.Once there is a tip in that balance, games begin to go in the wrong direction.
Though there is no gameplay for Hellblade yet,I am a little bit worried of how it is going to work. Razer on the otherhand is a unique, fresh and solid entry for NT.
Replies
The Devil May Cry reboot was pretty sweet too: hit a nice balance of gameplay and story.
Ideas are worthless
As for u mentioning boring,that isn't a fact. This is supposed to be an online game. Players should be able to communicate with each other. Groups should plan out their attacks.
Player A : B, freeze the guys on the left.
Player B : On it.
Player C : D, I am gonna boost u up. U need to eliminate the ones on the left. Pull me up in mid air.
Player
This is what is fresh about it.Unlike the games around now, this challenges the player. U have specific skills and u learn to work as a team. It is going to be a little challenging at first but I think this holds very huge potential as a fresh game. Players joining this world cannot survive on their own. They have to meet up with others and in order to conquer enemies, they have to have certain members with a skillset to survive.
U have to communicate and understand how each team member plays in order to become good in this game. With continued practice as a team, u do not need to communicate with each other, just from the way ur teammates move, u should be able to guess what to do or how to assist ur teammates.
This challenges the concept of just rushing in and slashing or shooting like crazy. It reminds me of an animation webseries called rwby where the team members sucked at first when fighting monsters but with continued practice, they work in sync without much communication.Players can even come up with names for ceratin scenerios or combination attacks.
Player A: Alpha Razor, Monsters up ahead.
Means player B pulls C up in the air, D freezes the enemies and A stuns them,C comes down on them with a big explosion.
Of course, the skills the players have will determine what combinations they can use. The stronger they get,the more combination attacks they will have. This would be different compared to the repetitive stuff with COD, and Destiny which imho are boring.
I can imagine in this world there are going to be teams that will become popular because of how good they are in battles and using their skills to enhance each other.
I have a lot of other interesting ideas but I am going to stop there.
And this gameplay mechanic is not new, it's called Co-operative gameplay, 4 player coop, it's dime a dozen now, and it's old, it's just recently made a resurgence.
Just how "Next Gen" was the catch word in game development, co-operative gameplay is the new catchword in Multiplayer game development.
The idea sounds like a MOBA in third person.
+1 - I think it's awesome they are releasing these pre-viz videos though, super interesting to see where they start from, would be great to see more devs do this.
TBH it looked ok, but nothing thats blowing my mind. and lets be honest here, online you dont usually have those kind of co-ordinated tactical conversations. I think it would be more like this:
Player A: hey guys there's some enemies up ahead.
Player B (possibly 12 years old): shuttup you little faggot dont steal my kills, just stay back noob. *yelling over mic* MOM! WHERES MY FUCKING PIZZA I ASKED FOR. JEEEEZ!!!
Player C: some garbled tv sounds coming through his mic along with heavy breathing, possibly wanking while playing.
Player D: standing still for 5 mins before disconnecting because they just decided to up and leave to go do something else.
game consists of everyone running around trying to steal kills to get the most xp for themselves while blasting racial slurs at each other constantly.
BOOM....................RAZER!
that's probably because the concept of the game was written in the marketing department of some publisher according to the article.
There is a way the mechanics can be done where players can only upgrade but not from kills.There are far more interesting ways to upgarde characters. XP doesn't have to even be part of this game. Gaining xp points from kills is getting very very repetitive.
@tadpole3159 By big break, I mean making games that are financially successful. NT is yet to achieve that and its my hope they make huge sales with their new game. The problem has always been with gameplay and creating good scenerios as framework for how the gameplay comes about.
I remember when Blender wanted to crowdfund Gossbery project or whatever it was called. I remember mentioning on their forums along with some other ppl,it wasn't a good concept,it was too abstract and it wasn't going to gather much interest. The crowdfunding failed.
@mats effect I hope so,mate.
Sounds kind of funny now that I say that aloud "Games for kids?! WTF!".
But Hellblade looks pretty sweet so far tho! I look forward to finding out more about that.
http://www.hellblade.com/?p=17227
They released documents, designs, pre-vis and prototyping stuff that is all super interesting and valuable from a production and design perspective. It's pretty unheard of for people to release all this stuff, ever.
Your opinions of the game itself aside, if you wanna see how a really experienced team handles their early design process, this is pretty amazing insight.
They are trying to achieve AAA game without having the budget to do so.
The results? It gives games with amazing art visually but poor technically
add to that, due to budget limitation, because they prefer to throw money at the art team, lazy mocap scene and show off visual sequences, deep(lol) stories, the gameplay is often left out of developpement.
In the end, you get this one way scripted game, with already seen boring gameplay mechanics that arent developped enough to make it interesting or stand out from all the other hallway games....
I'm not asking them to develop open worlds, I'm asking them to do just like most indies do; concentrate on the gameplay instead of visuals.
I think that's why their games failed to interest people.
This is comgin from a guy that played HS, Ensleaved, Remember me and DMC.
ps: After two games, I still can't believe Ninja Theory hasnt mastered Unreal yet, to think they made us DMC in 24 fps,that's kinda shameful from a technical point of view...
(IM READY FOR THE HATE)
What was lazy about their mocap? Some excellent performances in Dishonored. Agree with the rest though, terrible to passable game-play.
Some awesome animations in super Mario 3d world as well, pretty sure ninja theory didn't work on it though...
That's what happens when you give games unmemorable one word names! You know I meant Enslaved!
NT are renowed when it comes to mocap.Have u seen the facial animation they can obtain from motion capture? I agree with evrything else u said,( though kinda harsh).
They should focus on gameplay more seriously this timearound. Like I mentioned in my previous post,most game devs always fail to maintain a balance.This is where companies like Naughty Dog will continue to excel. Any game they make is goldmine and that is because they have perfected how to blend in the necessary ingredients using the right amount to ensure the resulting meal on the menu is palatable,juicy and spicy for consumption.
However, I should point out we should refrain from trying to make fun of them.Every studio has a history on how they started out.They will get there soon, they just need to find a firm footing and I strongly believe they can come up with something good drawing experience from dmc...hopefully.
If you look at DmC as a game on its own, it did many things well, and it had some of the best environmental design I've ever seen in a game but if you compare it to previous DMC games, it failed in a lot of areas.
It was a reboot, not a sequel so it sort of makes sense for NT to want to put their own stamp on it.
Its a shame a lot of people got hung up on this (not necessarily this community but the gaming community in general). If people don't enjoy it, it doesn't make it a bad game (unless it is, by all accounts a bad game) but its just not a game that caters to them anymore.
Personally, I enjoyed DMC (even if it did get repetitive towards the end). It does seem as though NT's games are getting better and better with each release. Looking forward to seeing what they do with Hellblade.