Shiny Founder Quits To Aid Sale 61
Gamasutra reports that Dave Perry, the founder of Shiny Entertainment, quit his role with the company to aid its sale from floundering Atari. From the article: "Shiny Entertainment was founded in 1993 by Dave Perry, and produced the hit Earthworm Jim series, as well as the financially successful Enter The Matrix. It is also noted for more esoteric titles such as MDK, Messiah and Sacrifice. The studio was sold to French publisher Infogrames by Interplay in 2002 for an estimated $47 million, before the company bought the rights to the Atari name and logo." Sacrifice was a unique and under-rated strategy title. It was flawed, to be sure, but the immediacy of summoning your troops in the field was a lot of fun.
MDK (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:MDK (Score:2)
It certainly was a very strange game. I seem to remember the graphics were exceptional to the time as well. One of the rooms was all mirrored surfaces IIRC which was something I hadn't seen outside ray traced scenes before. I though the weird landscape really worked well though and gave the game something that most don't have. I certainly enjoyed it way back then.
Re:MDK (Score:1, Informative)
While that game was in development, they were saying that it was written almost entirely in assembly language. They wanted to squeeze out every resource of the CPU possible.
Re:MDK (Score:2)
Re:MDK (Score:2)
Re:MDK (Score:2)
Re:MDK (Score:2)
Installation took 5 minutes, leaving me 10 minutes to revel in beautful 640x480 3D bad-guy killing with exceptionally smooth control and frame rate. The
Matrix (Score:3, Insightful)
Which means the game wasn't succesful with fans. The only good part of the game was the cutscenes.
Another great game that didn't sell. (Score:1)
Re:Another great game that didn't sell. (Score:1)
Re:Another great game that didn't sell. (Score:3, Insightful)
If anyone is up for a networked game of sacrifice, gimmie a hollar.
Re:Another great game that didn't sell. (Score:1)
Re:Another great game that didn't sell. (Score:1)
I noticed that I just brought it up on my new PC and it looks great.
I have a pretty good Japanese single player map for it called "Marduk Encounter!"
Re:Another great game that didn't sell. (Score:1)
> than all the other RTSs out there, totally unique.
And yet a pretty, but gameplay-wise complete turd like Warcraft III comes along in a feeble attempt to be a squad-based combat RTS, and sells millions more. Hint: That was slapped on in partial response to Sacrifice. "Upkeep"? Bzzzt! Sorry, poor game design re-writing the gameplay at the last second.
Re:Another great game that didn't sell. (Score:2)
Re:Another great game that didn't sell. (Score:2)
Re:Another great game that didn't sell. (Score:3, Interesting)
Sadly, Giants got all the press, even though it wasn't nearly as good a game. People liked the idea of playing the Giant more than they liked the idea of a really good game. And Walmart didn't like it.
Sacrifice would have been better if the multiplayer were stronger... the
Re:Another great game that didn't sell. (Score:2)
NOLF2, on the other hand, just wasn't that good. Buy the first one, but skip the second. It has moments, but it's really not worth hunting down... a pale shadow of its predecess
Re:Another great game that didn't sell. (Score:3, Interesting)
I play SS2 and sacrifice when the newer games start getting boring. Both are still very playworthy!
Re:Another great game that didn't sell. (Score:2)
What I've read suggests that the Psi track in SS2 was super-hard. That's what I was trying to do both times I've played it, so that may be part of the problem. I suppose a trainer or a cheat might have worked, but in a survival-horror type game,
Re:Another great game that didn't sell. (Score:4, Informative)
But the spawning only happens in the first couple levels were there are security cameras. A naval officer can disable security for long periods of time, and eventually you can start using your hacking skills to place turrents and stuff under your control...
Re:Another great game that didn't sell. (Score:1)
Jaysyn
Re:Another great game that didn't sell. (Score:1)
That would tend to explain the similar art styles. Who knows how much design they did on Sacrifice before splitting, how amiable the split was or wasn't, and how much of the work they did stayed in the game? And how much of PM's art team was trained by Shiny's, or vice versa?
And then there's the other studio that split off from Shiny, Neverhood.
Re:Another great game that didn't sell. (Score:1)
When I think back to the best RTS games, they are in this order:
1. Sacrifice
2. Total Annhilation
3. Dungeon Keeper I
4. Dungeon Keeper II
5. Starcraft
Note 3 of the 5 have unacceptable premises. In DK, you capture and convert, via torture, the good guys to your evil ways. Yet that was really just a small part and in all three cases, was not at the core of why the games were awesome to pla
Merger (Score:2, Funny)
http://www.thehappycompany.com/ [thehappycompany.com]
When the company particpates in Hands Across America, we will finally have our shiny happy people holding hands.
Re:Merger (Score:2)
When I hear that term, I think of psychotic yuppies off their meds, calmly grasping the freshly-severed limbs of their children. But then, I live in Texas. [courier-gazette.com]
Re:Merger (Score:2)
Earthworm Jim 2 (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Earthworm Jim 2 (Score:2)
I dont get it. (Score:1, Troll)
Re:I dont get it. (Score:2)
Perry suggests that facilitating the sale to another company was his main reason for quitting the developer, saying to the Register, "If I'm an employee of Atari, then I'd be stepping all over them. This way, I'm representing a buyer. I can act swiftly and get buyers on the table
It sounds more like he's doing a combination parenting and "F*ck you, Atari!" role.
Re:I dont get it. (Score:2)
Dear Dave Perry (Score:2)
What ever happened to the realtime tesselation engine from Messiah? Can we have it in some game that's coming out some time later? How come the characters in Messiah and MDK were far more detailed then the characters in Enter the Matrix, which were modeled from actual people?
Re:Dear Dave Perry (Score:5, Funny)
How come the characters in Messiah and MDK were far more detailed then the characters in Enter the Matrix, which were modeled from actual people?
Are you suggesting that the video-game Neo wasn't as expressive or lifelike as Keanu Reeves?
Re:Dear Dave Perry (Score:1)
Re:Dear Dave Perry (Score:2)
Re:Dear Dave Perry (Score:2)
Also, apparently VR Baseball 2000 used the actual realtime tesselation engine (licensed from Messiah before the game ever came out) so they could more efficiently render 10 players on the field.
Since when was "Earthworm Jim" a classic? (Score:2)
Re:Since when was "Earthworm Jim" a classic? (Score:2)
Re:Since when was "Earthworm Jim" a classic? (Score:1)
Re:Since when was "Earthworm Jim" a classic? (Score:1)
Re:Since when was "Earthworm Jim" a classic? (Score:1)
Both Lode Runner (an ancient Macintosh platformer -- how ancient? Note no qualifiers on the phrase "Macintosh") and Pitfall were stunners for their time. Yet both re-issues of them as well as re-envisionings in modern 3D always fall flat. You just can't live up to the original no matter how hard you try. For every Aliens, there's a dozen Matrix sequels. For every Terminator II, there's two doz
Re:Since when was "Earthworm Jim" a classic? (Score:1)
Gabby Scabby! (Score:1)
Never played the game, but the cartoon was in the same league as The Tick, maybe a bit more surreal.
Any cartoon featuring a fur-bearin' trout is an Instant Win(tm)!
Re:Since when was "Earthworm Jim" a classic? (Score:1)
On the plus side, Earthworm Jim's cartoon was better than the Pac-Man cartoon.
Re:Since when was "Earthworm Jim" a classic? (Score:1)
He didn't really leave.... (Score:1)
Aladdin (Score:2)
Go to the options screen, move the cursor over Difficulty, and type out ACACACACBBBB.
Re:Aladdin (Score:1)
So long. (Score:1)
At that point I basically tuned him out forever.
dperry.com (Score:2)
I recommend starting with his memory dump [dperry.com].