Heavenly Sword Developers diary

War_Destroyer

http://www.ninjatheory.com/blinkblink/in...4&Itemid=52
Found this on slashdot a few days ago, figured some of you guys might find it interesting.

Scott Ruggels

Read it, and it mirrors my last couple of years fairly scarily in fact.

Scott

oXYnary

very good read. All the more reason I hope online distribution takes off.

Kevin Johnstone

Aye, that was a great read.

Likewise, I've been 'there' before, but it ended the usual way rather than the upbeat way it seems to have for Ninja Theory.
It's great to hear a positive UK Development story, most of the stories I hear from folk I know in the UK scene just scare me and make me count myself lucky.

r.

Toomas

[ QUOTE ]
All the more reason I hope online distribution takes off.

[/ QUOTE ]

Errr.. online publishing gives you millions of $$ to develope your game?
I dont think so.

palm

Very interesting read.
I’ve been there myself before.

Isnt their any strong UK based publishers?

_Shimmer

I think i just read one of the best movie scripts. I can really hear him. Its always the same shit...

Besides its a good story in my opinion with lots of up and downs asd we know them from life, It was fun to read, cause he wrote quite well. If you have the time, read it

Scott Ruggels

[ QUOTE ]
Very interesting read.
I’ve been there myself before.

Isnt their any strong UK based publishers?

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually from reading U.K. Game Mags, and talking to colleagues from the U.K. there may be something about the business culture there, that may hinder a successful developer. It just seems that game development is ... more cohesive in Japan, and here, than in the U.K. For comparison for the rest of Europe, then, how has the success or failure rate of developers in France and Germany (and Sweden) looked like?

Scott

spacemonkey

The Uk industry is brittle... cost of living is so expensive compared to other countries that its becoming less appealling to develop games here.
The Uk games industry also largely consisted of lots of smaller dev houses.. which is why over the last few years so many have gone under or have been bought by other companies. (even successful ones like Creative assembly-Sega)
The only strong Uk based publisher is/was Eidos - who are now owned by Sci... it remains to be seen how they will fair.
Things are definately scary over here - which is why I am making a break for Canada.

Toomas

Well you could call Lionhead somewhat a publisher.

Kevin Johnstone

Toomas: Yeah but lionhead has the problems of small devs on a collection of small devs tied together under the umbrella idea of one big company.

The idea of satelite commpanies that Molyneux had, boiled down to his acting as a huge bottleneck for the creative decisions of 5 companies.

The UK is an unstable scene, always has been.

r.

Mark Dygert

I kept waiting for "and then we ran out of money and had to resort to cannibalism until the game was finished" Hopefully this is just the first chapter in a long fruitful history

gauss

reading up on this now, thanks for linking it. good food for thought

Steve Schulze

[ QUOTE ]
even successful ones like Creative assembly-Sega

[/ QUOTE ]Who are Australian, if I'm not mistaken.

Made for good reading. Tah for the link.

palm

So what is it that makes the European scene so different
from US or Japan? Why is it so much harder to make it over
here? If it really is? Are we just incompetent?

Isn’t there anyone on the board that has worked on
both scenes that would like to chare his experiences?

KDR_11k

As Daz said, the work culture here is more relaxed. Perhaps Europeans are less willing to crunch and therefore miss deadlines?

spacemonkey

[ QUOTE ]
Who are Australian, if I'm not mistaken.



[/ QUOTE ]

They have a studio there but the company was started by Tim Ansell in Sussex.

Edit; errr....... fixed now

KDR_11k

Quoted the wrong post?

Foehammer

wow great story, can definitely learn alot from that, game looks cool too.

MRFlynn

was a damn good read!