Blog

Godus co-creator Jack Attridge, referred to as Peter Molyneux’s “protege,” has left Molyneux’s independent development studio, 22Cans. His last day was Friday, April 17, 22Cans writes on Twitter.

Attridge himself also tweeted about his departure from 22Cans, saying,” Goodbye 22Cans. Has been lovely. It’s time to create something of my own. I can’t wait to talk about my new venture!”

His decision to leave 22Cans comes after the UK studio found itself embroiled in controversy just two months ago regarding broken promises for Godus. However, Attridge says in an interview with The Guardian that he actually made his choice to leave 22Cans back in January, before controversy around Godus blew up in February.

“It was January that I said to Peter I was looking to leave 22Cans and go off to start my own thing,” he said. “I was really worried that it might be perceived that I was leaving the studio because of that. It really is a shame because that felt like such a terrible time for us to part ways.”

Regarding his initial hiring at 22Cans–Attridge formerly worked for Electronic Arts and Rebellion–he said he was excited by Molyneux’s pitch for the studio. “He said he wanted to change the world,” Attridge recalled Molyneux saying.

“After meeting him he said to me why don’t you come along as a designer, but also as his kind of protege,” he said. “For a good year it was just me and him designing crazy stuff together every day.”

But as time went on, Attridge said he became more of an “adviser,” when he really wanted to “steer my own ship.”

So Attridge left 22Cans, and has founded his own studio that’s currently working on an unannounced game. He showed an early tech demo of his new project to The Guardian, but says he won’t reveal the game in full until later so as to avoid over-promising and under-delivering.

“I vowed that I’m not going to say anything about this new game until we can show it,” he said. “It’s really tempting to show it off and talk about it now because we think we’ve got something magical on our hands. We want people to be able to see it and to feel it and to understand that it is the product in front of them and not something else.”

As for 22Cans, it will move on without Attridge as it works on continued development for Godus (still in Early Access on Steam), along with a new project called The Trail. Don’t expect to see this game anytime soon, however.

“We’re going to make our mistakes and go down those blind alleys privately before presenting the game to the world,” Molyneux said back in February.

For more on Attridge’s decision to leave 22Cans, his thoughts on Molyneux as a leader and designer, and lots more, check out The Guardian‘s full story.

Powered by WPeMatico

With under two months to go before E3 2015, Microsoft has started to tease its plans for the show. Xbox boss Phil Spencer writes on Twitter that fans can expect this year’s event to feel “different” from past shows, primarily because Microsoft is going to focus more on first-party titles with its briefing than previous events.

Spencer revealed the news on Twitter in a back-and-forth with fans who asked about what Microsoft may have up its sleeve for E3 2015. He started off by teasing that Microsoft “should have new exclusive IP at E3,” adding that he is “trying to make this E3 more about first-party than past E3s.”

This doesn’t mean third-party games will be missing at Microsoft’s E3 showing this summer, Spencer stressed in a follow-up tweet. “And to be clear we will have third-party deals, it’s just, [in my opinion], important to focus on and support our first-party,” he said.

Among other franchises, Activision’s Call of Duty series is one of the biggest third-party games that historically gets stage time at Microsoft’s annual E3 event. This is, of course, likely due to Microsoft’s long-standing exclusivity arrangement with Activision for Call of Duty DLC.

Spencer went on to say that he’s aware that Microsoft’s new first-party E3 focus means this year’s show might “feel different from past E3s.” However, “I like focusing on our games,” he explained.

Some of Microsoft’s first-party game announcements from last year’s E3 included Scalebound, and new entries in the Crackdown and Phantom Dust franchises. Looking to this year, Microsoft has already said it plans to talk more about Halo 5: Guardians, Forza Motorsport 6, and something new in the Gears of War franchise at E3. Other first-party possibilities include Rare’s new game and Quantum Break (recently delayed to 2016), while there are always surprises kept under wraps until the big show.

Spencer and the rest of the Xbox planning team are scheduled to hold an internal meeting today, April 20, to discuss what Microsoft will show during its E3 presentation. He said Microsoft will hold a “full-day content review for E3” on Monday, in an effort to look at “everything we might show.”

He went on to say that days like today are “some of the best work days; inspiring.”

E3 2015 begins with Bethesda’s press conference on Sunday, June 14. Though official plans have not yet been announced, Microsoft historically holds its press conference on Monday morning of E3 week (June 15), with Electronic Arts and Ubisoft holding theirs later in the day, capped off by Sony’s in the evening. Nintendo is expected to follow on the Tuesday of E3 week with its own event.

GameSpot will be on the ground in Los Angeles reporting live from the show all week long.

Powered by WPeMatico

Shadow of the Beast is a tiny indie project that’s trying to suggest the opposite is true. Its developer Heavy Spectrum has a core team small enough to be counted on two hands, yet the ambition here is to lace the game with enough special effects and visual flair that it comes across as a polished extravaganza. Not triple-A exactly, but in the ballpark.

The outcome is curious; it’s a little archaic, reverting to side-scrolling platforming and button-mash fisticuffs (think of a marriage between God of War and the original Prince of Persia), yet punctuated with lovingly crafted details and striking vistas to make it stand out.

Rendered in 3D yet fixed to a side-on perspective, the gameplay is as straightforward as the 1989 original (run right, jump ledges, decapitate enemies) though now benefitting from cinematic effects that flaunt the sheer brutality on display. At times the camera will break free and swoop in for a close-up of enemies being impaled by the monstrous claws of the game’s bestial hero, Aarbron. Blood explodes from the necks of foes whose heads have been torn off and tossed into the air, splattering blotches of crimson across the camera lens.

Yes, it’s all so very crude, but it isn’t brainless. The world of Karamoon is laced with its own myths and history, depicting an ancient civilisation buried among the sands of an alien wasteland. Stretching out into the horizon is what appears to be the upturned carcass of an unfathomably colossal beast, its eroded ribcage so vast that it creates an extraordinary skyline. Spires of bone stretch out into the sky, made into silhouettes by an unbearably bright sun that hangs low.

There’s a resonance to this world, a sense that all its parts belong to a wider mythology. Considering Heavy Spectrum’s workforce limitations, it’s remarkable enough that Shadow of the Beast is an attractive 3D game, let alone one with a soul.

“Sony is one of the companies that are still trying to make games better”

Matt Birch

Such a feat would not be possible if it weren’t for its principal designer Matt Birch, who had stayed up until three in the morning the night before our interview to polish the demo code. That’s the kind of person he is; one with so much passion for Shadow of the Beast that, when he finally revealed the project for the first time, he tried in vain to hold his emotions.

“We’ve got hundreds of pages of text explaining why everything belongs in the world, what its history is,” he says. “The demo we’re showing has thousands of words that I’ve written explaining the back-story. I deliberately want to not expose all that to the player, I want to make sure there are mysteries and gaps that people can fill with their own imagination.”

It wouldn’t be hard to imagine that Birch only interrupts his work to eat and sleep. The project is now more than two years old, but couldn’t have reached this pre-alpha phase were it not for his unrelenting love for Shadow of the Beast, his infectious passion, his somewhat unnerving determination to succeed.

It also wouldn’t be possible without the help and resources provided by Sony, he says. “Before Sony announced its plans for PlayStation 4, they showed us the specs and asked what we thought we could do with them. I couldn’t believe they were revealing this to us. It was one of those pinch-yourself moments.”

Birch, who previously held a managerial role at the now-defunct EA Bright Light, went on to found Heavy Spectrum with his wife. Though the project would likely be far further along in production had he hired more staff, Birch would be the one paying the salaries, and as such decided to keep the team small.

“I really appreciate how Sony respected my wishes for the studio to stay creative and small,” he says. “Sony is one of the companies that are still trying to make games better.”

For Birch, better doesn’t necessarily mean original. In terms of its core combat design, Shadow of the Beast has more in common with games from the eighties (Kung Fu Master, Double Dragon, et al) than those of the modern era. Granted, there is a God of War rhythm to the light and heavy attacks, and moments of strategy and counter-hits, but overall it’s a cathartic massacre played out by pressing the same sequence of buttons a few hundred times.

Which is to say, it’s just like the original Shadow of the Beast; a game released 25 years ago and generally forgotten by the masses, but arguably the reason why Birch took a career in games and wanted to retell its story to new people.

“Shadow of the Beast was a defining moment of my childhood. I remember going around a friend’s house; he just got an Amiga and showed me the game. I remember being just… awestruck by it, and every time I took the bus home from his house it was all I could think of.

“Those bus journeys were probably the moment I realised games were not just about challenge. They have worlds and stories that you can take with you.”

Shadow of the Beast will ship exclusively on PlayStation 4. Heavy Spectrum has yet to confirm its release date plans.

Powered by WPeMatico