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Re: Any role in the development of Prey?
I see I accidentally edited out the quotes I had in my post:
Quote:
Publisher/producer? What roles behind a game do these take? For example, how much input does one have in the actual design of a title?
Scott: When we act as a producer, we often contribute significant funding to a project, which allows it to reach a point where it is much easier to pitch to publishers. We also provide design guidance, marketing guidance (for example, I was a prime mover on all marketing for Duke Nukem 3D, Max Payne, and Prey, leading the design of the retail boxes, game ads, picking the screen shots, writing all of the marketing text, etc.), and at the end, we are deeply involved with play-testing and polishing. It’s quite a lot of work, but then, it’s also really fun.
Prey was well received by press and gamers alike, so just how much input did 3D Realms have in its development?
Scott: All of the above! Big money. The overall concept came from me, and was then co-shaped by Human Head and me together. I brought in all three of the external writers and worked closely with them, and Human Head, to lay-out the story and characters. Human Head and I worked on all of the key gameplay ideas, some coming from me (death walk, spirit walk, Talon) and some from Human Head (gravity and wall walking). And many from 3DR were involved with the game’s play-testing. It really is a big collaboration.
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( Source)
From an article about publisher-developer relations:
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Money is the root of all evil. Said one developer, “Someone once told me the Golden Rule really is, ‘The guy with the gold makes the rules.’” Scott Miller, 3D Realms co-founder, states it just as plainly. “The dirty secret is: Publishers control developers through payments. Rockstar was paying Human Head so late on the milestones payments [in the early days of Prey] that 3D Realms was jumping in to help Human Head because they had payroll to meet. [Rockstar] even said to us, ‘[You’re] taking over the control [we] have over developers.’ Nasty stuff like that happens all the time.” For its part, 3D Realms is helping its fellow developers by offering creative and financial assistance on projects.
Naturally, the money that publishers pour into a project entitles them to have some say. These suggestions can run the gamut of good, bad, and ugly. “When Prey was being developed early on it was actually a Rockstar-label game,” explains Miller. “At the time, Metroid Prime was going to be released, and they had the whole visor thing, and this producer [from Rockstar] said, ‘Well, the visor is going to be a big thing for Metroid, and we should have a visor for Prey.’ And it didn’t fit anything to do with the game at all. So it ended up where we were rejecting all these crazy ideas, and for that reason along with some others, Rockstar ended up dropping the game because we were too hard to work with.”
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( Source)
Quote:
Who's writing the script? We've read a copy of the earlier parts of the game and have to say that we're mightily impressed.
Scott Miller: The script has been a long process for us and not a cheap one either! We've spent as much on this script as many Hollywood film scripts. The original story was created by myself and several developers at Human Head Studios. Next, we had a 35-page treatment written by Chris Treagus, an expert in the horror genre. Then, David Freeman, best known for his Hollywood writing workshops, wrote the first draft of the script and Gary Whitta wrote the final draft. Gary used to be the editor of a PC games mag over in the US, and has recently had a script picked up for movie production. He's the writer for the Duke Nukem Forever script too.
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GS: While reading your blog lately, I noticed that you were talking about partnering with studios that might not otherwise get a chance to have a good start.
SM: Well, there’s a bunch of reasons. Where should I start? Just from our track record, lots of studios can see what we bring to the table. We bring funding to the table. We did two million dollars’ worth of funding for Max Payne and we did well over that for Prey. We’re an insurance policy that a game is going to get done to a level of polish that we’re happy with that maybe a publisher wouldn’t be happy with.
I don’t think that a lot of publishers really understand the importance of the final two or three months of polishing. A lot of games get released that gamers say, “with some polishing, this game could have been pretty nice.” We make sure they get that level of polish.
The biggest thing we bring to the table is we’re all about creating intellectual property (IP). We’re all about creating original IP. We’ve never done a licensed game and when studios sign up with us, they know they’re going to be making something original. If they go to a publisher and they’re not well established like an id Software or Epic, then they’re probably going to be handed some licensed IP. For most studios, that’s just not as fun as doing something original. In the mid to late nineties, it was easy for studios to have original IP, but now the tables have turned. So, we offer a way for developers to do an original project and also to have ownership in that project, which doesn’t work that way with most publishers.
Now, if the game’s a hit, that’s the holy grail: owning a valuable IP. If the studio owns a valuable IP, then they have lots of leverage and clout. They can reap financial rewards, call their own shots and make better deals. It changes the game for them.
By teaming up with us they get out of the rut of doing licensed games and make an original game. So far, studios that have worked with us have done pretty well and other studios have seen what happens and they want a piece of the action.
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( Source)
Edit:
Quote:
Even with everything all set up, the
project still had its problems. You would
have been forgiven if you’d thought Prey
was cursed. It gave Gerritsen and his
team some nail-biting moments.
“Though I can’t discuss details due to
non-disclosure agreements, I can say
that Human Head worked without a
publishing contract for about 18 months
due to our dispute with our publisher.
That was pretty frightening since Human
Head is an independent studio, and we
were dependent on our milestone
payments to pay for production."
“3D Realms, however, believed in the
game and what we were doing with
development, and they funded us during
that period. This kept the company, and
the project, alive during that period."
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( Source) (Prey article starts on page 9, I highly recommend it).
Last edited by Kristian Joensen; 03-09-2009 at 05:19 PM.
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03-09-2009, 11:07 AM
