People News Leonard Boyarsky at SINFO 24 - A Life in Video Games

[HoboForEternity]

There's one thing I don't get, why can't they talk about their new, author project? Wouldn't it be more beneficial to start the hype already? Unless there's almost nothing done yet.

Odd that no one in the audience had played Fallout 1 tbh

They've played, at least one of the people who asked a question said that it's his favourite game and I doubt they would be in that room only because of Diablo.

or it is being published by thrid party and NDA is still going strong or Fergus needs all the hype directed to dedfire

 

[FeelTheRads]

Jeez, that audience is completely clueless about anything the guy says. They're probably all like "yeah, whatever, when are getting to discuss about important things like sexism in games???"

Great respect to Boyarsky, as always.

 

[Goral]

I'm a patat from Mazowsze don't school me boyo

Apparently you can't recognize a Polish surname when you see one, chłopczyku/jcd alt.

Edit:
Bester
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bojarski

Every surname ending with "-ski" is Polish, in English it's often transliterated to -sky (e.g. Strachovsky).

https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/-ski_(nazwisko)

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Noticed that later too but "Boyarsky" (or "Bojarski") is a Polish surname not Ukrainian (and a lot of today Ukraine territory belonged to Poland, including Lviv for example).

:wtf am I reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyarsky it's a russian surname.

 

[Infinitron]

Russian or not, I'm appreciative of Boyarsky's proletarian background. Apparently he had children early enough that his daughter is grown up and married, and there are rumors that he's struggled with alcoholism.

 

[Don Peste]

There are rumors that you're a jew.

 

[Fenix]

Maxie
Noticed that later too but "Boyarsky" (or "Bojarski") is a Polish surname not Ukrainian (and a lot of today Ukraine territory belonged to Poland, including Lviv for example).

Yeah, we have a famous actor in Russia, he is also Mikhail Boyarsky and this surname is of Polish origin

acolyte Ivan Segenyuk + Felixa Venediktovna, nee Bojarskaja, from Polish Orthodox nobles.

Everyone's favorite for the role of D'Artagnan in the best film adaptation of "Three Musketeers".

But Boyar is Russian name for nobleman, also I'm not sure of its origin.

 

[agris]

Yeah I did remember well, the game was ''finished'' (read: frozen by idiotic Activision) months before HL2 shipped, unbelievably moronic how the project was mishandled by Activision.

I recalled the same thing as Jazz, and I think that's out of PC Gamer.

 

[Davaris]

Things I learned from this video: If you want to make games you like, do it after work. A tiny team made 2D Arcanum and a 3D engine brought down Troika.

 

[Diggfinger]

Such a legend. Cant wait to hear what him and Tim are cooking up.

Great that he went into details about his early experience and Arcanum + Bloodlines. Of course awesome to hear about Fallout, but that stuff is pretty well-documented by now...

 

[KILLER BEAR]

Things I learned from this video: If you want to make games you like, do it after work. A tiny team made 2D Arcanum and a 3D engine brought down Troika.

Troika closed it's doors because they couldn't find a Publisher for the games they wanted to make. It had nothing to do with 3D engine problems really.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Once again, whenever people from the original Fallout team take the stage, I am in awe. And Arcanum is the work of genius, as I've always known since I first fired up its demo.

BTW, I can testify for how easy to use the editors were. Back in my teens, I converted a whole O. Henry short story into an Arcanum mod. Unfortunately it's long lost by now. Yet still, I was able to teach myself to use the dialog and world editing tools.

 

[Davaris]

Things I learned from this video: If you want to make games you like, do it after work. A tiny team made 2D Arcanum and a 3D engine brought down Troika.

Troika closed it's doors because they couldn't find a Publisher for the games they wanted to make. It had nothing to do with 3D engine problems really.

I disagree. Their audience wasn't large enough to support the expense of 3D engines and assets. And they were unable to polish their last game, because they were using someone else's 3D engine.

 

[Popiel]

But Boyar is Russian name for nobleman, also I'm not sure of its origin.

Not Russian but Ruthenian, or Rusian if you like. In Polish it's used for nobles from the East, be them from Litva or some Ruthenian/Russian state. So, Bojarski can be very well a Polish surname, denoting someone of noble, eastern origin, most probably from Litva.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Boyar/Bolyar is not a "russian-only" title.

 

[KILLER BEAR]

I disagree. Their audience wasn't large enough to support the expense of 3D engines and assets. And they were unable to polish their last game, because they were using someone else's 3D engine.

I think they would have managed just fine if they could find a publisher. Bloodlines suffered from troubled development and unfortunate release that dropped its sales at launch.

 

[Fenix]

Boyar/Bolyar is not a "russian-only" title.

I said that I have no idea of it's origin.
Actually...
Wiki told it is "Goes back to word from the Old Russian language, which is borrowed from the Old Slavonic language, which is later became Church Slavonic language, word of the Danube Bulgarian origin".
Also wiki is a bullshit source, but only I have at least now.

Not Russian but Ruthenian

Yeah, and who is Ruthenian if not Russian?

"The name "Old Russian language" does not mean only continuity with the modern Russian language, and is due primarily to self-designation of the eastern Slavs (the Rus), on behalf of the state-forming ethnic or social group Russes. In terms of scientific publications, used for historical Slavic studies. Ger, Altrussisch, Eng. Old East Slavic, Old Ruthenian, Old Rus (s) ian, fr. le vieux russe, Ukr. davnoruska mova, Belarus. starazhytnaruskaya mova."
As I said, wiki is a bs, because it is just coincidence you know, that there were some Rus or Russes, and it doesn't mean Old Russian language have something with Russians. Lol.

 

[Volrath]

Great guy, why is he wasting his talents at Obshitian again?

 

[Jazz_]

Great guy, why is he wasting his talents at Obshitian again?

Better than wasting it at Blizzard..
If they gave Cain and Boyarski carte blanche there's reason to be optimistic.

 

[Davaris]

I disagree. Their audience wasn't large enough to support the expense of 3D engines and assets. And they were unable to polish their last game, because they were using someone else's 3D engine.

I think they would have managed just fine if they could find a publisher. Bloodlines suffered from troubled development and unfortunate release that dropped its sales at launch.

They couldn't find a publisher, because their games didn't sell enough to interest investors.

At the time the entire industry wanted to go 3D. Why? Well just because, m'kay? A lot of smaller companies went broke because of it, because they couldn't compete in the arms race of spending moar money, to beat the other guy on graphics.

IMO they would have been better off if they had made 2D games after work, like they did initially with Fallout. At least they would still own all their IP and from what Boyarski appears to be saying, they would've been able work on games, instead of managing a company doomed to failure and suffering burnout afterwards.

 

[Davaris]

Great guy, why is he wasting his talents at Obshitian again?

Better than wasting it at Blizzard..
If they gave Cain and Boyarski carte blanche there's reason to be optimistic.

Blizzard is where you go to recover from Troika induced burnout.

 

[Alienman]

I love listing to developer talk about the good old days. Might be a bit of a thread hijacking, but is there more of these? I know that GDC and such has boat loads, but I'm thinking more juicy ones like this, with legendary developers?

 

[KILLER BEAR]

They couldn't find a publisher, because their games didn't sell enough to interest investors.

That's my point as well.

At the time the entire industry wanted to go 3D. Why? Well just because, m'kay? A lot of smaller companies went broke because of it, because they couldn't compete in the arms race of spending moar money, to beat the other guy on graphics.

Yeah but 3D RPGs are also more profitable than 2D ones so it's easier to find a publisher for these. Troika decided to close its doors because not enough people wanted to play "isometric" turn-based RPGs. 3D may be more expensive, but it's also more profitable.

IMO they would have been better off if they had made 2D games after work, like they did initially with Fallout. At least they would still own all their IP and from what Boyarski appears to be saying, they would've been able work on games, instead of managing a company doomed to failure and suffering burnout afterwards.

Well that's why they founded Troika in the first place, to have complete creative control over the games they wanted to make. But yeah it turned out managing a company isn't easy.

 

[Zeriel]

Things I learned from this video: If you want to make games you like, do it after work. A tiny team made 2D Arcanum and a 3D engine brought down Troika.

Yeah, hearing Troika developers talk is the perfect antidote to the belief that publishers know what they're doing and more money is the solution to everything. Fallout went downhill the moment the marketing guys working at the same fucking company so much as realized they existed.

 

[Don Peste]

I love listing to developer talk about the good old days. Might be a bit of a thread hijacking, but is there more of these? I know that GDC and such has boat loads, but I'm thinking more juicy ones like this, with legendary developers?

Tim Cain GDC 2012 Fallout post-mortem Video is a must, in case someone missed it.