A Game Studio grew mushrooms, not for salads.....
polycounter lvl 18
http://www.insidemacgames.com/news/story.php?ArticleID=6651
That article talks about the demise of Presto Studios, but I heard....from a former employee...that the owners use to grow mushrooms at the studio, the hallucinogenic kind.
If you can't talk dirt about a company that's no longer around, when can you?
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20021115/saladino_02.shtml
This is an interesting read.......a game called 'Wacked'.
I was at the IGDA conference that showed this game.
Whacked seemed like a well designed game, but it didn't catch on by the public.
http://www.games-fusion.net/content/000257.php
But I don't think you need to trip out on mushrooms to make this:
Basically, I'm trying to figure out what went wrong.
It seems like people got a little arrogant, and just did what was needed to get by.
That article talks about the demise of Presto Studios, but I heard....from a former employee...that the owners use to grow mushrooms at the studio, the hallucinogenic kind.
If you can't talk dirt about a company that's no longer around, when can you?
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20021115/saladino_02.shtml
This is an interesting read.......a game called 'Wacked'.
I was at the IGDA conference that showed this game.
Whacked seemed like a well designed game, but it didn't catch on by the public.
http://www.games-fusion.net/content/000257.php
But I don't think you need to trip out on mushrooms to make this:
Basically, I'm trying to figure out what went wrong.
It seems like people got a little arrogant, and just did what was needed to get by.
Replies
I'm sorry to go on such a long, off-topic rant, but this guy is a despicable human being. He is a blood sucking leech that makes his living stealing other peoples' work (he originally claimed that all proceeds only paid for his bandwidth--and I believe he still does make this claim--but he admitted on his own message boards that selling the fusion packs is his "livelihood." And apparently he makes a pretty good "living" off of it, because he regularly posts new "toys" that he gets with the money (e.g. $3000 film cameras, expensive computer hardware, etc.). I'm not a violent man, but if I were to come across this man in person, it would take a tremendous amount of restraint on my part to not bash his fucking face in. Gahhh, my blood pressure must be through the roof at the moment... time to go take a walk.
[edit] oh yeah, also, he plagiarizes most of his news posts, reviews, previews, and just about everything else on his site... if you try copying sentences from his content and googling, you'll sometimes find the original source(s)
From what I see, a large part of the gamingindustry must be on lost of different things
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I think that goes for all creators in the entertainment industry. Take for example the writer for the old "Alf" series. He had a 10.000$ paycheck each week but an 11.000$ hobby(drugs).
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The Sorrento Valley studio, a well-known creative team in the video game industry, announced this week it is shutting its doors.
The news shocked Presto's fans, and many of its 21 employees. It seemed as though the company was riding a wave of success after producing the top-selling "Myst III: Exile" computer game and the upcoming "Whacked!" game for Microsoft's XBox system.
Presto made about $2.5 million a year, had no debt and was rich in creative talent.
What happened?
The video game industry is changing, said chief executive Michel Kripalani, who started the studio in 1991 with friends in a rented house in Mira Mesa.
Presto used to fund the production of its own games, but now game titles cost millions of dollars to make. Companies that can afford to produce them often hesitate to spend big money on new, untested ideas.
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Now, I'm confused.
According to this news article it wasn't economical failure that shut Presto down, but failure to adjust and commit to the market?
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The article says that Presto wasn't able to secure the development rights for Myst IV. Presto developed Whacked! for Xbox (due for release this fall), but they weren't able to get funding from game publishers for other games they wished to create. Publishers didn't want to fund original, untested concepts, and publishers wanted to save money by working with cheaper game developers.
"We were at the point where we had so many expenses and such a high payroll that we started to lose passion in the games," Michel said. The article says that after Michel informed employees about Presto's closing, he took a long walk and fought back tears.
Presto will give employees severance pay and assistance in finding new jobs. A skeleton staff will remain for a few weeks while they close the offices.
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http://members.aol.com/mystsequel/news/news_2002_3.html
Discreet in Montreal has appointed Michel Kripalani as game industry manager in charge of driving product design and management for customers in game development. He will also coordinate industry relations with key game developers and console manufacturers. A veteran of the gaming industry, Kripalani founded and operated San Diego-based game development company Presto Studios, which produced Myst III:Exile. There, he was responsible for both business and product development.
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Doh!
Apparently, the founder of Presto Studios works for Discreet now.