Development Info Aliens RPG - So close Feargus could taste it

[Jason]

Tags: Feargus Urquhart; Obsidian Entertainment

Feargus Urquhart <a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2010/04/28/obsidian-ceo-aliens-rpg-felt-like-a-finished-game/" target="blank">let Joystiq know</a> that Obsidian's <b>Aliens RPG</b> was nearly a done deal when it was canned.
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<blockquote>At a press event last week, we asked Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart some followup questions about the axed title, which he'd previously asked us to do; however, it still hasn't been the required year since we first talked to him, so we're still missing the details as to why the title got the guillotine. But we did learn that the game looked and felt nearly complete before its cancellation. "Oh, if you had come in and played any of the last builds we were working on, you would have said it was a finished game," Urquhart told Joystiq. "That's how close we were. It looked and felt like it was ready to ship." </blockquote>
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Keep in mind that "ready to ship" is Obsidianese for "early pre-alpha build".
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgwatch.com/">RPG Watch</A>

 

[Secretninja]

They would only need about 3 hours of gameplay, mostly for tutorials. DLC could distribute the rest.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Probably got canned because it was so terrible that even SEGA couldn't stand it.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Probably got canned because it was so terrible that even SEGA couldn't stand it.

 

[Gerrard]

Probably got canned because it was so terrible that even SEGA couldn't stand it.

So it was too hard?

 

[madbringer]

Keep in mind that "ready to ship" is Obsidianese for "early pre-alpha build".

Too bad. It could have been awesome. It could have been the next stepping stone in the history of gaming. All we are left with now are the empty, charred remains of what could have been but never will be.

 

[relootz]

Keep in mind that "ready to ship" is Obsidianese for "early pre-alpha build".

Never forget, never forgive KOTOR 2

 

[Pablosdog]

also remember that it was due to pressure from lucasarts to finish in a year's time, why kotor 2 ended up the way it did.

A year for a game that's almost better in every way to kotor 1 isn't that bad.

 

[Jaesun]

FUCK YOU SEGA.

 

[Tails]

I have mixed feelings about Aliens RPG, since those new kind of Aliens sound & look like a weird idea.

also remember that it was due to pressure from lucasarts to finish in a year's time, why kotor 2 ended up the way it did.

A year for a game that's almost better in every way to kotor 1 isn't that bad.

Hah, you could get many responses here at Codex that "better in every way to kotor 1" ain't good enough

 

[denizsi]

I wonder how much removed that tech demo video was from the "almost finished" early pre-alpha version.

 

[Fat Dragon]

also remember that it was due to pressure from lucasarts to finish in a year's time, why kotor 2 ended up the way it did.

Obsidian agreed to that 1 year dev schedule, and then went and bit off more than they could chew by trying to make a big game. LA should have given them some more time, but Obs also should have better managed the project, and even MCA admits that was the main problem.

The good thing about Alpha Protocol is that Obsidian has gotten a lot of time to finish and polish the game. Of course, it also means if this one fails no one will be able to just throw all the blame on the publisher this time.

 

[Azrael the cat]

also remember that it was due to pressure from lucasarts to finish in a year's time, why kotor 2 ended up the way it did.

Obsidian agreed to that 1 year dev schedule, and then went and bit off more than they could chew by trying to make a big game. LA should have given them some more time, but Obs also should have better managed the project, and even MCA admits that was the main problem.

The good thing about Alpha Protocol is that Obsidian has gotten a lot of time to finish and polish the game. Of course, it also means if this one fails no one will be able to just throw all the blame on the publisher this time.

Even going back to their Black Isle / Interplay days, MCA admits on occasions that they had seriously fuckups in project management that flowed on to creative and mecahnics fuckups. E.g. FO2: the fact that they did not havfe one single person in charge of ensuring there was any kind of continuity between the various sections - whether continuity between events and the overall themes' (hence the king rat), continuity between different towns, continuity between the feel of individual towns and the overall atmoshpere there were going for (hence New Reno: good by itself, but horribly out of place).

One thing I've liked about MCA: he actually admits past fuckups, and gives constructive reaosns at a game development level why they probably went wrng (and whilst I've heard him bitch about the difficulty upgrading the nerfed xbox version of the Aurora engine, I've never heard him blame Lucas Arts for the 1 yr turn around, unlike many of his fans).

 

[Volourn]

"also remember that it was due to pressure from lucasarts to finish in a year's time, why kotor 2 ended up the way it did.

A year for a game that's almost better in every way to kotor 1 isn't that bad."

Bullshit.
_________________

 

[Forest Dweller]

Lies.

 

[relootz]

I have mixed feelings about Aliens RPG, since those new kind of Aliens sound & look like a weird idea.

also remember that it was due to pressure from lucasarts to finish in a year's time, why kotor 2 ended up the way it did.

A year for a game that's almost better in every way to kotor 1 isn't that bad.

Hah, you could get many responses here at Codex that "better in every way to kotor 1" ain't good enough

It doesn't have an ending and thats one of the worst things that can happen to a game.

 

[KalosKagathos]

It doesn't have an ending and thats one of the worst things that can happen to a game.

Bullshit. The cliffhanger was supposed to be in there since day one. What was cut is scenes immediately preceding the ending: the climax of the G0-T0/HK-50 subplot and confrontations between party members on Malachor V.

 

[relootz]

The cliffhanger was supposed to be in there since day one.

An easy excuse for the lackluster, unfinished ending.

Everybody and their mother knows they cut a lot of content especially in the ending.

 

[KalosKagathos]

The point I'm making is that the main plot thread, Exile's apprenticeship under Kreia, does get resolved.

 

[yes plz]

The Ebon Hawk taking off into the unknown during the very end (if that's what you're talking about) was always the planned ending because, for whatever reason, they were under the impression they'd be doing a sequel.

 

[SolipsisticUrge]

KOTOR 2 gets a lot of points for the dialogue, and for managing to make the piss-poor Star Wars universe actually hold my interest for a few hours. That's about it.

Although if I recall correctly, I do remember reading somewhere that Obsidian asked for the opportunity to work on the game further post-release to restore the missing content, and were denied permission by LucasArts. If that's true, it does slant my blame for the game's state toward LA.

 

[Zomg]

Uh keep good copies and leak it after Sega goes bankrupt dawgs.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Uh keep good copies and leak it after Sega goes bankrupt dawgs.

Yeah, definitely keep a copy of the last compiled version safe so it can be "leaked" in few years.