Vapourware System Shock 3 by OtherSide Entertainment - taken over by Tencent!

[Space Nugget]

What's "Unity NDS" or "NDS" (in that context)?

Nightdive Studios

Ah, thanks! (Can't use buttons yet.)

 

[Wesp5]

I mean, Prey didn't push the enveloppe gameplay wise but the level design is something out of this world. Every single thing has a purpose, the sense of being in a place that could exist is built in a way I've rarely felt about any video game.

Really? Have you ever been in a functional environment? A space station with such a weird layout where you need to move back and forth between several elevators to even reach all areas looks ridiculous to me. But of course in that sense it was the spiritual successor to SS2: increase playing time of a game with a handful of small maps by hours just by having the player backtrack again and again and again...

 

[Latelistener]

I'm ready to go on the record: This studio is done.

I kinda want to see a trailer of SS3, but I also have a strong feeling that nothing of value will be lost.

 

[MasterLobar]

Old Shodan: "Look at you, hacker: a pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?"

At OS, they say: "Look at you, backer..."

 

[glass blackbird]

At least we can say System Shock 3 will be better than Underworld, because it is genuinely impossible for anything to be worse.

 

[Alienman]

At least we can say System Shock 3 will be better than Underworld, because it is genuinely impossible for anything to be worse.

"Hold my beer..."

 

[Zep Zepo]

Waldo Rectum (Creative Consultant on UA lets not forget) shits out some opinions

What's on the horizon for you? I know you’re working on System Shock 3. How is everything going with that?

Warren Spector: It's going well. I don't want to steal Underworld Ascendant's thunder, but it's definitely a game in the same vein.

https://dailydead.com/interview-leg...sses-his-latest-project-underworld-ascendant/

This is shortly before (or after) UA's release.

Steal that thunder! LOL

Zep--

 

[Max Heap]

- It is safe to say that OS didn't make and will not make one cent with UA. According to SteamSpy, UA sold about 12,000 copies so far (not including refunds). The current sales price is $7.49, down from $29,99 after launch. Steam is also getting a cut, so total revenues are probably in the $100,000-200,000 range at the moment (with very limited future potential).

http://steamspy.com/dev/OtherSide+Entertainment

Steam takes a 30% cut.
From that the state of Massachusetts takes away 8% corporation tax (plus some funky distinction between taxable net worth and property, but that probably has little impact in relation)

Assuming all 12,000 units went over the table at 30 bucks (which wasn't the case but lets be optimistic) that makes a revenue of 360,000. Minus Steam and taxes that makes about 231,840 dollaridoos.

So that is the situation at the very best. I'd assume that Steamspy includes gifted games / games purchased from a third party. So those 12k include kickstarter backers, which we'd have to subtract to get the real amount of bought units.


Luckily Kickstarter lists the amount of ba-

Oh...

Oh no....

Spoiler

So going by Steamspys maximum owner estimate (20k) that game has sold 6000 units at the very best. Which basically halfs the numbers stated above to 115k. Boy oh boy, if I was 505 I'd start writing that investment off.

 

[glass blackbird]

Steamspy isn't reliable anymore by any means. Not that the game sold well because I'm pretty sure it's a big flop, but they relied on things that are no longer available.

 

[Invictus]

Just let Otherside fucking die already; they are actively destroying the rose tinted memories of Looking Glass and their most prominent franchises like Ultima Underworld and System Shock... Thief was already done for once Ubi Soft got their grubby hands on the franchise and it definitely looks like System Shock 3 will be mediocre at BEST

 

[Darth Slaughter]

Just let Otherside fucking die already; they are actively destroying the rose tinted memories of Looking Glass and their most prominent franchises like Ultima Underworld and System Shock... Thief was already done for once Ubi Soft got their grubby hands on the franchise and it definitely looks like System Shock 3 will be mediocre at BEST

Ubi soft?

 

[toro]

Just let Otherside fucking die already; they are actively destroying the rose tinted memories of Looking Glass and their most prominent franchises like Ultima Underworld and System Shock... Thief was already done for once Ubi Soft got their grubby hands on the franchise and it definitely looks like System Shock 3 will be mediocre at BEST

Ubi soft?

... when someone confuses Splinter Cell with Thief.

 

[Invictus]

Just let Otherside fucking die already; they are actively destroying the rose tinted memories of Looking Glass and their most prominent franchises like Ultima Underworld and System Shock... Thief was already done for once Ubi Soft got their grubby hands on the franchise and it definitely looks like System Shock 3 will be mediocre at BEST

Ubi soft?

Square Enix... same result

 

[Ash]

Warren is getting old and senile judging by his talk about how "violence has to stop". How exactly is he going to portray System Shock 3 without violence?

It's trying to preach a message and compromising art (the game itself) in the process of this nonsensical pursuit.
It's like taking the Alien franchise and removing any action and killing from it because the Aliens are causing xenophobia in the viewers and this is bad because...reasons.
Fuck, can't you just make good high quality games, and if you really want to make a difference, use the (relative) big bucks you earn as producer on some altruistic pursuit that's actually meaningful and produces results? Hell you could donate to me to make a game, people are starving for good vidja in this age. They need nourishment.
At least use a new IP if you want to exercise new, questionable (in this context) design ideas because VIOLENCE IN VIDEO GAMES IS BAD, PREACH!

Yes, violence is bad. Using well established video game franchises as the medium to preach this is...ah whatever. Modern game industry. None of 'em can get it right.

to quote Romero if I may: "DESIGN IS LAW". Nothing of this nature (sociopolitical messages) should come before. Or it was law, in the 90s...

 

[Space Nugget]

Warren is getting old and senile judging by his talk about how "violence has to stop". How exactly is he going to portray System Shock 3 without violence?

It's trying to preach a message, compromising art (the game itself) in the process of this nonsensical pursuit.
It's like taking the Alien franchise and removing any action and killing from it because the Aliens are causing xenophobia in the viewers and this is bad because...reasons.
Fuck, can't you just make good high quality games, and if you really want to make a difference, use the (relative) big bucks you earn as producer on some altruistic anti-voilence pursuit that's actually meaningful and produces results?
At least use a new IP if you want to exercise new, questionable (in this context) design ideas because VIOLENCE IN VIDEO GAMES IS BAD, PREACH!

Yes, violence is bad. Using well established video game franchises as the medium to preach this is...ah whatever. Modern game industry. None of 'em can get it right.

to quote Romero if I may: "DESIGN IS LAW". Nothing of this nature (sociopolitical messages) should come before. Or it was law, in the 90s...

What? Warren Spector is not a fan of cheap, mindless, tasteless violence/gore that you find in most mainstream games nowadays. I mean, look what they did to Tomb Raider, I won't get into the whole "ludonarrative dissonance" argument, but Psycho Lara is laughable, and that's kinda becoming the norm.

He said so himself, he does not believe violent games make you violent, but it distorts the outlook of the medium, makes the market satured, it's not very clever nor interesting, and so on.

 

[Ash]

OK snowflake.

Lara was also a psycho in the originals, for example trespassing on land and murdering its human inhabitants. It was awesome. Tomb Raider 2013's problem wasn't its portrayal of violence. It was everything. It's just shit. That's the case for nearly everything modern game industry. Only way to fix it is to nuke it from orbit and start over.

(my true, non-hyperbolic rating for TR2013 is 6/10)

 

[LESS T_T]

Well this again? From last year's fuss:

 

[Space Nugget]

OK snowflake.

Lara was also a psycho in the originals, for example trespassing on land and murdering its human inhabitants. It was awesome. Tomb Raider 2013's problem wasn't its portrayal of violence. It was everything. It's just shit. That's the case for nearly everything modern game industry. Only way to fix it is to nuke it from orbit and start over.

(my true, non-hyperbolic rating for TR2013 is 6/10)

"Snowflake"?

Dude, you're the one getting your panties in a bunch.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Just let Otherside fucking die already; they are actively destroying the rose tinted memories of Looking Glass and their most prominent franchises like Ultima Underworld and System Shock... Thief was already done for once Ubi Soft got their grubby hands on the franchise and it definitely looks like System Shock 3 will be mediocre at BEST

Ubi soft?

Square Enix... same result

You're not too far from the truth -- a noticeable chunk of people who worked on Thi4f were former Ubisoft employees. That's why I usually refer to it as 'Assassin's Creed on a Wheelchair'.

 

[LESS T_T]

Speaking of violence, I guess this is combat designer of SS3. Jimmy Sedota, worked on Middle-Earth games at Monolith, and Anthem and Andromeda at BioWare: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmy-sedota-2558a71/

Gameplay designer with 20 years of game development experience including lead and management roles. I have shipped multiple AAA titles as a designer and animator and I have extensive experience in the open world and 3rd person action genres. My primary areas of focus are with combat, AI, and developing good gameplay “feel”.

Principal Gameplay Designer - Combat
Company Name Monolith Productions (WB Games)
Dates Employed Jun 2009 – Apr 2016

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War (PS4, XBOX1, PC)
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PS4, XBOX1, PC)
Responsible for designing, implementing and maintaining multiple combat systems, includingplayer and enemy designs..

Lead Designer - Creatures
Company Name Bioware
Dates Employed May 2016 – Jul 2018

Anthem (unreleased)
Responsible for leading the creature design team and collaborating with various disciplines to deliver compelling enemy AI in a 3rd person, open world action game.

Mass Effect Andromeda (PS4, XBOX1, PC)
Design owner for multiple enemy AI.


Game Designer
Company Name OtherSide Entertainment
Dates Employed Jul 2018 – Present

 

[Cross]

It figures they had to get the Monolith employee who only worked on the LOTR games and not any of the games with actually fun combat that Monolith made before that. And Andromeda as the cherry on top of the shit cake.

 

[BEvers]

Principal Gameplay Designer - Combat

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War (PS4, XBOX1, PC)
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PS4, XBOX1, PC)

This is all part of a master plan to keep expectations as low as humanly possible.

 

[Space Nugget]

So edgy.

That SS3 team is comprised of a fair share of seasoned game developers, unlike UA, is a good thing.

 

[LESS T_T]

Okay, let's do this. Developers on the team that can be found on the web.

Creative Director
Warren Spector

Design Director
Chase Jones - ex-Junction Point Design Director, Design Director on Scalebound at MS

Lead Programmer
Mark Allender - ex-Volition Tech Director

Art Director
Arturo Pulecio - ex-Junction Point

Designers
Jimmy Sedota (Combat?) - ME: Andromeda, Monolith Midde-Earth games

Programmers
Robb Thomas (AI) - ex-Ion Storm, ex-Junction Point AI programmer
John Sizemore - UI programmer at Red Storm, Insomniac
Evan LeGros - fresh graduate

Artists (exclude freelance concept artists)
Francisco Cruz III (Env) - ex-Arkane (Prey), ex-Bungie
Chris Douglas (Env) - 20+ years of env art including Prey

Producer
Vicki Resendez - ex-Disney

QA Manager
Kyle Uberman - ex-Certain Affinity QA Manager

Yeah, at least experiences, relevant and recent, are certainly plenty, unlike the UA team.

Missed are level designers. Is it just that no level designer at the team has an up-to-date web profile, or... no dedicated level designer at the moment?

 

[vortex]

That's a great team. They just need to get good writers now.