Game Informer's Web site has posted an interview with Silicon Knight's President Denis Dyack. Dyack's company has been popping up in news lately, though most of the news has not been positive. He uses this interview to clear the air on topics like the Unreal Engine 3 lawsuit and the recent Too Human controversy.
"The damages that we suffered because of the failure of the Unreal Engine have been grievous," says Dyack. "We, as a company, have worked really, really hard to overcome that. What we’re going to show people in October, through our hard work, is really going to shine through. To the extent of damages—that’s all to be proven at trial."
When questioned on when he thought the press would actually see Too Human in playable form, Dyack spins the tables on Game Informer in an attempt to prove a point about showing games too early.
"I think we need to show them in more of a mature state, where you as a previewer and as a reviewer don’t have to play weatherman two years from now," said Dyack "So let me ask you a question, because I like doing this a little bit. Have you done a preview of Spore?"
They go on to debate "preview vs. review", and how an early look can damage a game's future. The full interview is available at Game Informer.
[thanks, rishi]
Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site
Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, Photographic tools.
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Contest:
11:29 AM on 09.08.2007
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it wasnt us, we tried as hard as we could, it was the engine that limited us
That whaaaaaambulance is not nearly big enough.
The Lair crew needs to fit in there too.
[sarcasm] That game is a total piece of shit too [/sarcasm]
The thing with UE2 was that you could use it for almost any type of game. And a lot of dev teams used the engine, and a lot of them really liked the engine. So then they upgrade to the UE3 and it is very very different. The engine is really designed to make a shooter, and if you want to make something that isn't a shooter, then there is a lot of work to be done.
When I was talking to the guy at the Mass Effect booth at PAX he said that the team had a lot of trouble adding the RPG elements into the game. The UE3 handled all of the combat fine, but it took them the bulk of about 2 years to put the entire RPG layer over the UE3. He said it is almost an entire new engine that functions on top of the UE3.
Yeah,Dyack might be whining a little bit, but I don't think it is unwarranted.
playing devils advocate, i do agree that Epic released there engine in a poor unfinished state, as if they made it for a few games to use and just stopped flushing it out... they went for pretty over function... NEVER a good choice!
Actually they did scrap the engine and started working on their own which is why they are suing. They basically said that if they didn't have to make up their own engine, the game would be a year ahead of where it is now.
They reason they are suing is because of that lost money. When licensing the UE3, they were promised an easy to work with engine that is versatile, just like the UE2 was. But Epic failed to deliver and the UE3 isn't all that it is cracked up to be. See the problem? Epic says that their engine can do A, B, and C. but in reality, it can only do A without A LOT of workarounds that shouldn't be necessary.
I don't see why every one jumps on their shit over this. Whether or or not we care how long it takes them to finish their game or what "grievances" they may or may not have endured (or whether we think them laughable) is one thing. BUT, for them, as a business, these things can and do end up costing them countless more dollars, man hours, and unbelievable amounts of bad press.
If they were promised something from Epic in their business relationship and they did not receive such promises, then they really do have legitimate reasons to be upset. Now, I agree making it all so public is one course of action that probably could and should have been avoided. They certainly could have settled their differences and issues behind closed doors and not made them such a spectacle.
On the other hand, whether or not you dry hump Epic's leg because they made Gears of War and have licensed their technology to countless other companies making top notch games shouldn't matter. Clearly there will be times when Epic cannot live up to even their own standards in terms of licensing and such. I am not surprised at all that this happened. With Epic working with so many companies it was a matter of time before they slipped up somewhere and cost a company time and/or money. It's just sad it happened to a company working on such a high profile release.
For all we know Silicon Knights is completely correct in their concerns and no one can be the judge of that except for, well, the judge in the lawsuit. Time will tell who was right and who was wrong. Until then, don't jump down the company's throat just because you don't think what they are saying is of legitimate concern. I personally think it's good someone called Epic out on a business issue if they weren't doing their job properly and again, the judge will tell us if that is the case or not, not some internet bloggers on a website.