This may be one of the most misleading titles I've ever given a post. No, it definitely is. Silicon Knights has filed a lawsuit against Epic games based on the fact that they were sold on an engine that just doesn't deliver. They believe that Epic withheld newer versions of software they bought in order to keep a leg up on their competition, not to professional if you ask me. The house that Dyack built goes on to accuse Epic of sabotaging the development of Too Human and has stated that it was so bad that they had to actually build their own engine. Too Human will no longer be using the Unreal 3 engine- thats progress if you ask me: I hate all this engine licensing, its like saying you've renovated your house when all you did was give it a fresh coat of paint. Developers should just build their own engines, why depends on Epic to tap the potential of these new consoles? Clearly they aren't doing a very good job at it. One company with all the power? dangerous...
Hit the jump for the Press release
via Kotaku
SILICON KNIGHTS SUES EPIC OVER UNSATISFACTORY PERFORMANCE OF UNREAL ENGINE 3
ST. CATHARINES, ONTARIO, CANADA, July 19th, 2007 - Video game developer Silicon Knights, Inc. has filed suit against Epic Games, Inc. for breach of contract, fraud, and several other tort claims in federal court in Greenville, North Carolina. In the lawsuit, Silicon Knights alleges that it has lost revenue as a result of the considerable delay in developing its video game for the Xbox 360, Too Human, because Unreal Engine 3, a game engine licensed from Epic, did not work as Epic represented it would and, moreover, Epic has been unable or unwilling to fix it.
As Denis Dyack, President and Founder of Silicon Knights, explained, "Our strong preference is to focus on making games, not be in court. Unfortunately though, as explained in our lawsuit, we have had extensive problems with the Unreal Engine 3 that Epic has been unwilling or unable to rectify. For more than a year, we have been trying to reach an agreement with Epic to resolve these issues without resorting to litigation, but were unable to come to reasonable terms with Epic. Regrettably, we are now forced to go to court in order to achieve satisfaction. We remain hopeful, however, that we can reach a reasonable business resolution with Epic at some point."
The lawsuit further alleges that Epic in fact never intended to deliver Unreal Engine 3 as a fully functional game engine as promised. Instead, Epic collected licensing fees from Silicon Knights and others in order to fund the development of its own video game, Gears of War. "No doubt Gears is a fun and phenomenally successful game, but as we alleged in our complaint against them, we strongly believe that from the perspective of someone waiting for a game engine that Epic promised it would deliver almost two years ago, it seems pretty clear that Gears was built on the backs of the Unreal Engine licensees. We certainly stand by our allegations in the lawsuit that instead of using our licensing fees to develop and support the Unreal Engine 3, Epic used that money to build Gears," said Mr. Dyack.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Silicon Knights getting Epic
Saturday, June 9, 2007
DOXOfeature: Dyack at IASC, The 8th Art.
This past week I had the pleasure of attending the 'Immersive Worlds' conference at Brock University. There were many interesting Game related lectures going on, my most anticipated? Dennis Dyack. He spoke of many things, Too human, Gaming as Art, the future of gaming and revealed little more about his new SEGA game to me. (very little)
Full report, and the 'one question exclusive interview' after the jump!
Dennis kicked off his speech by showing us a real time cinematic of Too Human, it’s the same build he showed us last time, still looks great. He then went on to introduce his colleague Barry Grant who happens to be a professor of Film studies at Brock University, but also belongs to the Silicon Knights team. He spoke a great deal about the history of film and the uphill battle film makers faced when trying to convince the masses that moving pictures deserved to be taken seriously as an art form, and not strictly as entertainment. He draws many parallels to the gaming industry, sharing the same mentality that Dyack himself has expressed many times before; Games are moving away from a past of strictly entertaining people and moving into a future where they are held in much higher regard. An interesting comparison he shared was that early film, much like gaming, found its popularity in spectacle- something that lost it’s appeal overtime. As film matured though, the evolution of characters, and story telling was able to create compelling pieces of art that held more than ones eyes- they made you think. This is where Silicon Knights believes gaming is going, more accurately, it is where Dyack and Co. want to take it.
At that point Dennis took the stage again and recollected a talk he had with Hideo Kojima. During the production of Twin Snakes Dyack asked Kojima what they could have done to make a bigger impact with Eternal Darkness. Kojima gave him a simple answer:
This was the sole inspiration for the ‘controllable cut scenes’ in Too Human. He brought up the fact that there are standards for cinematography that should not be ignored in gaming and that even limitations of film are being emulated in games in order to achieve the same sense of immersion. He gave us an example. In film, the background of a scene is often out of focus, minimalizing distraction for viewers. This was originally a limitation of primitive cameras, but has carried on because it is a technique that works. In this current generation of gaming we are seeing more and more depth of field being created through atmospheric perspective (essentially- sharper in the front, blurry in the back) which is something that games are not limited too, in fact it’s quite the opposite. Gaming hardware needed to get more advanced to pull off this ’restriction’. Dyack then went into another direction, he spoke about how we have reached a point where technology does not drive the industry, and that it was backwards thinking to say otherwise. He calls out for more creativity, and more academia in gaming. Rich stories, and deep character design, he calls for a Renaissance 2.0. He states that the art will drive the industry, the science - just as it did in the day of Michelangelo. I have to admit it was a pretty inspiring little segment. He explained how the mentality of some developers is like that of a stereotypical high school student, his example; Rockstar. He believes that if you ask somebody at Rockstar what makes their game fun, they don’t have satisfying answers, and will simply say something like, ‘Hey it’s a cool game, because I’m cool, and I made it. I’m a Rockstar.’ Again questioning the maturity of the industry, but also questioning sales.
He expressed that he was a bit dissatisfied with sales of Eternal Darkness, especially after the success of Legacy of Kain (which he blamed partly on platform). This caused him to think hard about a games marketability and what it is that people want to play. He stated that he believed graphics played a huge part in this, using Gears of War as an example (as he did last time I saw him speak) he said that it was one of the most beautiful games he had ever seen but that the play mechanics were average at best, and that the story would have been better had it not existed. He actually downplayed the importance of gameplay a little bit, stating that a lot of games that have ‘the play’ and not ‘the look’ tend to attract less gamers. He continued, saying that games like Mario and Zelda are often successful (not to mention over 20 years old) due to this synthesis. He then spoke of the engagement theory. Dyack claims, that games sell based on the level of engagement offered to the player and that different attributes hold certain weight.
Controversially, he believes in this as a sort of hierarchy, placing gameplay at the bottom. I would assume that each attribute doesn’t hold much more weight than the next, but Silicon Knights does seem more concerned with telling a story.
I came out of the presentation rather impressed with Silicon Knight’s vision and commitment to that vision. Judging from what I’ve seen of the game so far it seems that they’re making large strides towards their goal and it’s really exciting to see as a gamer. After wards I approached Dennis who actually recognized me. I told him I didn’t want to ask him another question he couldn’t answer, at least not in front of everybody. So I asked him a few in private. He wouldn’t elaborate much on the SEGA project (which he revealed to me months ago, as a multiplatform title), but continued to ask him about it:
Me: I know SEGA has been reviving a bunch of their old franchises lately, like Alien Syndrome, is this another attempt at that?That’s all he would say about that, I’ll admit it’s more exciting a prospect than an old IP coming back , look forward to it- just not anytime soon.
Dyack: No no, this is something that we’re building- something brand new.
Hit this to see our report from SKHQ where the first tidbit about the SEGA game was revealed to me
read more
Monday, June 4, 2007
Immersive Worlds Conference
Just a heads up to everybody that tomorrow I will be attending the second day of the "Immersive Worlds Conference" at Brock University. It's in honour of their brand new Interactive Arts and Sciences program and there are some really interesting things being discussed from the Wii remote, to Second Life- its all about immersion. Anyways, the biggest draw for me is Dennis Dyack's keynote. I don't expect too much news but the program mentioned that mysterious, multiplatform SEGA game Silicon Knights is working on (mentioned here first!)
Expect a feature sometime this week outlining anything I deem worthy of posting here!
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
DOXOfeature: Journey to Silicon Knights
The day has finally come...and gone, but it was definitely a memorable experience and a really great look into the gaming industry. Today I visited Silicon Knights, the biggest game developer in Ontario (which is sad, according to Dyack, considering they are comprised of only 150 employees) and let me just say that they really know how to treat their guests.
An average looking building concealed Silicon Knights, a clever disguise I must say. The development studio is spread over three floors of the building, the rest allocated to other businesses. It's definitely cosy.
When the elevator doors opened we were greeted by a gorgeous wall mounted fountain sporting the studios logo. I took the above image as we left, it was the only I was allowed to take, for what we were shown is something that not many have seen. We were ushered into the private theatre that Dyack and Co. use to show off their games. I'm sure they have movie Fridays too, or atleast they should.
The Dyack addressed our group rather casually, he comes off as a very personable man, and very very passionate. His presentation was a rather interesting one. He explained to us, the vision of Silicon Knights; Expand the industry through innovation and heightened production values. They're all about overtaking Hollywood as a story telling and entertainment medium. Dyack enlightened us about research and how they have put 8 -10 years into Too Human research and 8 years alone into developing the smart camera system present in the game. Considering they've been around for 15 years that's a healthy chunk of time dedicated to this ambitious trilogy - I'm just thankful somebody in the game industry is finally taking story telling history, and authenticity seriously*. He also offered some insight on how the industry will fight piracy. Stating that when the Internet is fast enough all games will stream off of a central server which players subscribe too in order to play, thus eliminating the mod chip and bootleg games market, in theory... Then finally, the reason for us being in a theatre was revealed.
Dennis Dyack reminded us that no photography, of any kind, was permitted because what he was about to show us was not shown to many others. He then proceeded to boot up a 360 dev kit and opened up the latest build of Too Human. To say the least I was thrilled, just before leaving I made jokes to my friends that we would be shown things nobody has ever seen, and there we were...sort of.
The portion he played began in an incredibly cinematic cutscene. The 'Wolf troopers' were preparing to embark on a mission inside a transport vehicle being dropped at it's location. The scene was flawlessly directed, rivaling the likes of the Metal Gear series, Final Fantasy or Resident Evil 4. Graphically the game was great, focal blurring really added to the cinematic feel as well as the quality voice acting. Animation was also solid, as was the texturing. Dennis let us in on a little secret; The RAM required to render the main character in all his hi-res glory is more than there was in the Gamecube all together.
The transition from cutscene to gameplay was absoloutly flawless, infact the cutscenes take place within the gameplay...or is it the other way around? Due to the advanced camera system players are put into cut scenes simply by walking into the appropriate area, the catch is that the camera transitions flawlessly, there is no graphical seperation and the player retains control of their character at all times. Yes, you can jump around while somebody is trying to talk to you. The real beauty of this game comes from the camera work though, honestly I found it hard to believe the camera was not being controlled by Dyack, it seemed very intuitive. Needless to say all issues from e3 seemed to be ironed out.
Dyack played for a solid 10-15 minutes and the game held my attention the entire time. There is absoloutly no load time visible to the player. There was a playable flashback sequence at one point which seemed to be rendered instantaneously and ready for the gamer to play when they reached that point. The setting changed completely as if we were watching a film. Again - no visible loading. Dyack explained to us that this was important to them, he said it was key in recreating the same experience as watching a movie.
After the play session there was Q&A. A few questions regarding the film influence were asked, and then I dropped the bomb, here's a summary;
Me: How is it working with a liscenced engine as opposed to one that you've created? I know it caused some problems at e3 that were exploited.
Dyack: I'm not answering that question.
That garnered a few snickers from most of those in attendance, mostly employees though.
After the talk they gave us all some swag! the awesome shirt, pictured below.
While people were moving out the door I took the time to introduce myself to Dennis and just to chat a bit, I apologized about bringing up e3, we had a bit of a laugh. We continued to talk about the industry and how imitating film, both in product and in presentation (down with previews!) would better the industry. Of course by this time I had worked up enough courage to ask him to sign my copy of Eternal Darkness, which just so happened to be in my back pack.
I brought a Sharpie but he insisted that he sign with a silver pen, I had no gripes, so we talked a little more. I addressed the fact that Microsoft was publishing Too Human and just got clarification that in no way is Silicon Knights a second party to Microsoft. They are free to develop for who ever they want, Microsoft is simply publishing the trilogy. He furthered this point by letting me in on a little secret.
Silicon Knights is currently working with SEGA to develop a multi-platform game.
After telling me that he added "I probably shouldn't have said that." While I think it was a not-so-well-known fact that they were working with SEGA, the fact that it was multi-platform
has not yet been revealed to my knowledge. His exact wording was indeed "All platforms" But who knows what that means, I don't think we're going to see Silicon Knights creating a DS game anytime soon. As far as I know the studio has never developed for more than one console at a time, but Dyack did mention that they were growing at a rapid pace.
After this intimate presentation in the theatre we were shown to the studio which was comprised of many personalized cubicles- but not shabby coffee stained cubicles, we're talking small houses here. Each work station was decorated to the employee's personal tastes. There was concept art and action figures everywhere, and I couldn't help but notice a portion on the wall that was covered in a black cloth, a print out pinned to it read
CONFIDENTIAL
punishable by death
They've got class down there at Silicon Knights, everybody was a real pleasure, and just very welcoming. It was a great experience and a very satisfying look into the game industry
Keep looking forward to Too Human updates, the game seems to be incredibly well conceived. Believe not EGM because that build was obviously a fluke and the game looks beautiful, a note worthy part of the 'games as art' debate for sure.
Edit: Forgot to mention, I witnessed a brief miniboss battle. Nothing too special but, I thought you should all know that the name of that beast, was none other than "Matt Cassamassina" I hand it to the developers for spelling that right.
Silicon Knights today
Just a reminder that I'll be heading to Silicon Knights this afternoon at 2pm. I hope I can get the King, good old Mr. Dyack himself, to sign my copy of Eternal Darkness- that is if he isn't to busy with his crusade against Gaming Previews.
I have to say that if you haven't read that blog entry that you should hit up the link, could he be the Martin Luthor King Jr. of the industry? Is this the future? Probably not but the man has my respect regardless.
colour me excited.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
And now for something completely different
And by completely different I mean, content. Ya, I haven't posted in a while, but I'm at work now and have nothing to do so, here it is...
I've got an announcement to make. Next Tuesday I'll be taking a trip to Silicon Knights for a little tour. I don't think I'll be uncovering anything earth shattering but there should be some pretty cool photos, and I'll definitely post them here...if I'm not busy...No. I have to post them here or Pascuzzi will come to my house at 3am and force me to drink shots of tonic water until I vomit.
Look foreward to it guys...both of you.
