Something went wrong. Try again later

mtmckinley

This user has not updated recently.

171 3475 28 37
Forum Posts Wiki Points Following Followers

Career Blog Part 26

Year 11 2010 (continued)

Once again, we thought we'd have a betting pool for the review score for the sequel. This time, however, there was no money put on the table. I guess they got cold feet from the last time. Anyway, everyone is choosing their score and writing it up on one of the whiteboards. I walk up and put 50. Of course, my coworkers are flabbergasted, and no one else marks a score even close, opting more for 70+.

Reviews come out... the average? 45.

Ouch. That's too bad, I could have used the money.

Biggest complaints were again, atrocious combat, repetitive puzzles. Bad gameplay as a whole, really. Once again, art work and sound receive better marks, so I can be somewhat vindicated in that, but considering the game was done without a true designer, I'm surprised it even shipped.

So what now? And please don't tell me SAW III.... Luckily (I guess?) Konami seems to get the picture from the reviewers and opts out of whatever sequel they could have published. Plus, supposedly, the SAW films have now ended with their 7th release so there wouldn't be a movie to ride the marketing coat tails. To be honest, I still believe a compelling game experience could be done with the SAW franchise... it's just not something you can spit out in less then a year and expect to be any good. Anyway, back to work... but on what?

Zombie is a two-team studio divided by floors. The upstairs has been the SAW team while downstairs, they've been working on Blacklight: Tango Down, a first person shooter that saw release on XBLA and PSN the previous year. They've been working on a sequel ever since then. I'm hoping that, like I had hoped when I first got hired, that I might be moved on to their team. I don't. Our Lead Environment Artist does though, subtracting our art team 1 and leaving us with 4 people to work on whatever upstairs will be doing next.

There have been rumblings on a game based on Blackwater, a real-life private military company that served in Iraq and other places. And it'd be for the Kinect. I roll my eyes... to be honest, I had no idea who Blackwater was or their reputation. I just thought the idea sounded kind of dumb. However, there'd be a new guy taking charge of this project and he seems like a good producer. I shrug my shoulders and wait.

Sure enough, I'll be joining the Blackwater project. I guess I'll have to figure out how to use these Kinect thingies.

Next: I stay out of it...

1 Comments

1 Comments

Avatar image for mtmckinley
mtmckinley

171

Forum Posts

3475

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 5

Edited By mtmckinley

Year 11 2010 (continued)

Once again, we thought we'd have a betting pool for the review score for the sequel. This time, however, there was no money put on the table. I guess they got cold feet from the last time. Anyway, everyone is choosing their score and writing it up on one of the whiteboards. I walk up and put 50. Of course, my coworkers are flabbergasted, and no one else marks a score even close, opting more for 70+.

Reviews come out... the average? 45.

Ouch. That's too bad, I could have used the money.

Biggest complaints were again, atrocious combat, repetitive puzzles. Bad gameplay as a whole, really. Once again, art work and sound receive better marks, so I can be somewhat vindicated in that, but considering the game was done without a true designer, I'm surprised it even shipped.

So what now? And please don't tell me SAW III.... Luckily (I guess?) Konami seems to get the picture from the reviewers and opts out of whatever sequel they could have published. Plus, supposedly, the SAW films have now ended with their 7th release so there wouldn't be a movie to ride the marketing coat tails. To be honest, I still believe a compelling game experience could be done with the SAW franchise... it's just not something you can spit out in less then a year and expect to be any good. Anyway, back to work... but on what?

Zombie is a two-team studio divided by floors. The upstairs has been the SAW team while downstairs, they've been working on Blacklight: Tango Down, a first person shooter that saw release on XBLA and PSN the previous year. They've been working on a sequel ever since then. I'm hoping that, like I had hoped when I first got hired, that I might be moved on to their team. I don't. Our Lead Environment Artist does though, subtracting our art team 1 and leaving us with 4 people to work on whatever upstairs will be doing next.

There have been rumblings on a game based on Blackwater, a real-life private military company that served in Iraq and other places. And it'd be for the Kinect. I roll my eyes... to be honest, I had no idea who Blackwater was or their reputation. I just thought the idea sounded kind of dumb. However, there'd be a new guy taking charge of this project and he seems like a good producer. I shrug my shoulders and wait.

Sure enough, I'll be joining the Blackwater project. I guess I'll have to figure out how to use these Kinect thingies.

Next: I stay out of it...