Category: Xbox

This weekend Bungie dropped some interesting data that suggests that Destiny is more popular than its mixed reception would suggest. While we’re still waiting on official Destiny sales figures from Activision, it seems that on average 3.2 million people are playing every day. The average player has also logged in 20 times in the month since launch and plays three hours every day.

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Borderlands is an island. In its center, there’s a breezy mix of ridiculous firefights and even nuttier guns. Surrounding it, however, is an ocean of tedium—little inconveniences that have plagued the series since its inception. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel does only the bare minimum of work to fix that.

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(If you’d like to listen to my conversation with Airship Syndicate, it’s available on the Interview Dumptruck.)

Ryan Stefanelli has been through the ringer. The Vigil Games co-founder shipped Darksiders II before THQ went under, but the future became uncertain. When THQ tanked, Darksiders was sold off, and Crytek bought Vigil. But Crytek had its own problems, and Crytek USA transitioned to engine support.

I’m still sad we’ll probably never see what happens after the ridiculously epic ending from the original Darksiders.

The co-founders of Vigil have gone their separate ways. David Adams and several former Crytek USA employees have formed Gunfire Games, while Stefanelli and artist Joe Madureira have formed Airship Syndicate, currently cranking away at something they’re calling Project X.

Darksiders was a cult hit, an unapologetic love letter to The Legend of Zelda. For many, it was exactly what they wanted from a modern Zelda game: violent and apocalyptic. Vigil Games was happy to provide. Darksiders II retained the Zelda elements of the original game, but loaded the game with loot. Around the time Darksiders II shipped, Madureira decided to leave the company he started.

“I knew probably mid-way through Darksiders 2 that I wasn’t going to stay on for another one,” he said.

Though the THQ situation was complicated, the feelings arose earlier. Madureira wanted a break. Vigil had transformed from a group of four trying the impossible into a 200-strong development team building a sequel to a major, bankable franchise. Vigil was even helping out with Warhammer 40K at the time.

“It kind of dawned on me that the most fun part of game development for me is when the studio is small,” he said, “and you don’t have a lot of outside pressures from publishers or marketing teams or whatever.”

Madureira still had a contract with Marvel, so he left Vigil to creatively recharge with comics.

During the development of Darksiders II and the brief existence of Crytek USA, the landscape for game creation had changed. It was now possible to develop games on your own. While the lack of a steady paycheck from a big company will always remain risky, development tools are now much cheaper, new marketplaces exist, and audiences have often rewarded risks. This got Madureira and Stefanelli talking.

“What we’re really looking to do is high-quality execution on a smaller scale,” said Stefanelli. “Games that are a little bit smaller in scale. They’re a little bit more intimate, and it’s something that we can do in a smaller studio setting.”

Chasm, Hyper Light Drifter, and other games have inspired Airship Syndicate’s ambitions.

On Airship Syndicate’s website, the company’s roots provide a hint of what’s likely to come from Project X.

While neither would divulge what exactly that means for Project X, they pointed to a smaller team being able to take risks on ideas as holding enormous appeal, given recent experiences.

“You can probably get away with some things that are a little riskier because the investment isn’t as great, so you can take chances,” said Stefanelli. “We tended to be kind of conservative with some of our decisions on Darksiders. We did a lot of ambitious stuff, but individually, a lot of the decisions were kind of conservative because we were spending a lot of money. THQ had a lot on the line with Darksiders.”

What they would promise was a character-driven game with RPG elements and a focus on storytelling. And because of Madureira’s involvement, it’ll certainly have a unique look.

“You can probably get away with some things that are a little riskier. We tended to be kind of conservative with some of our decisions on Darksiders.”

“We’re fans of games, that’s why we do it. It is a love and a passion and I think that is what we always strive for,” said Madureira. “We always pay homage to the great games of the past, whether it’s blatant or just a subtle nod. We love games and we will always strive for that, whether it’s a next-gen Darksiders-type game or something smaller.”

Though the not-so-great conclusions with THQ and Crytek have informed the creation of Airship Syndicate, it doesn’t mean the studio is averse to working with a big publisher should that make the most sense for what the game (or future games) demands.

“What you want to do is you want to try to put yourself in a position to have as much say in your own destiny and your own fate as possible,” said Stefanelli.

One way Airship Syndicate could retain control is crowdfunding, but that hasn’t been settled. The company is still figuring out what the future holds, and where it might look for help. As development begins on Project X, we won’t have to wait long. The two implied a proper reveal is only months away.

During our whole conversation, Madureira was doing his best to try and not tell me everything. (I tried.)

“Joe is terrible at keeping secrets,” said Stefanelli. “Pretty much he wants to tell [everyone]. He comes to me, and he goes ‘I’m just going to tweet it right now. I’m just going to tweet everybody a picture of what I’m drawing and they’re going to lose their minds.”

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I mean, we all knew it was coming. Bungie had already mentioned that they felt that Destiny‘s auto-rifles were overpowered and too accurate, and that a “fix” was coming. I guess I just started telling myself that they’d forgotten or something. They did not forget.

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“What if you could feel good all the time?” That’s the question that Bayonetta 2 seems to ask. It answers that query, too. With an avalanche of mind-bending spectacle that will very often leave you dizzy and, by the end of it, a little numb.

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