Aliens Colonial Marines got canceled, and this time it's official!

[Starkiller]

Colonial Marines is the FPS and the RPG is untitled i believe.

Yep shooter with RPG elements to it, such as X-Men Legends series.

 

[darthviper107]

sorta. The problem is that the video game industry, like most indsutry is run by people who's only concern is money, and making as much of it as possible. The game industry makes a REDICULOUS amount of money. Beleive it or not, the Game industry typicaly makes twice the profit of hollywood movies every year. The reason for this is when you get a hit, blockbuster game title, you make Crazy money. The people who run the industry are very rarely gamers themselves. there are exceptions to this, but for the most part, they are big busness executives. and one thing they teach to big buisness Excts, is deversifacation is the safe way to make money. so the diversify, the're safer. The following business model, is just that, a model, so Bear in mind i'm inventing the numbers. the actual dollar amounts will vary from publisher to publisher.

Lets say that a game publisher has 10 million dollars to invest in the games they're launching this year. Knowing that diversifying is the safe way, they pick 10 games, and give them each 1 million to work with. the HOPE is that one of those 10 games will be a blockbuster, and pull in 10 mil in profit, paying for the entire investment, and then the games that don't sell so well are not considered a loss, becuase they made bck their initial investment, so ANY additional profit is just icing on the cake.

What Alot of These Big business guys don't understand is that by putting MORe money into a games development you can almost garintee a blockbuster title, because more money = bigger budget, which = better people, which = better quality of finished product. but they've all been taught to never put all their eggs in one basket, so this is RARELY the case. the only companies that do this, seen to never release a lemon though. Examples of companies that DO put all their eggs in a single basket : Bioware, Blizzard.


But that's the reason why so many Crap games get published. Diversifacation.

Yeah, that's something that's cool about the video game industry--it's so ridiculously cheap to make games and they can potentially make a lot of money. But it's a big risk since it takes so long to make a game and in the meantime there's no incoming cash.

 

[lerath666]

depends. the game industry is a place where the more you put in at the get-go, the more you get out of it in the end. one of the Current Biggest money-makers in the game industry had a rediculous Buy-in.
And by buy-in I'm reffering to the money spent to hire concept artist to draw with, buy initial equipment/ software, etc. the start up money.
That game being World of warcraft, the buy-in being somewhere close to 2 milion dollars.

And too think that game brings in somweher in the neibhorhood of 150 Million dollars A MONTH just in subscription fees. ( that's 14.99 times an estimated 10 million subscriers worldwide.) or 1.8 BILLION dollars a year.
If more publisheres would get their head out of thier butts and realise that the games industry is all about GIGU, we would see ALOT better games overall.

 

[lerath666]

Just adding a thought, Can you tell What my Professional field is by now?

 

[darthviper107]

Just adding a thought, Can you tell What my Professional field is by now?

Of course, you're in the video game industry. I'm looking to get into it as well, started out with 3D animation but gaming makes more sense (for 3D artists it's not as competitive as getting into film effects).

In fact, I'm looking at trying to do an internship at Gearbox, they're very close by. And they're a pretty good company.

But really, compared to movies which cost around $100 million for a really successful film to make, video games are much much cheaper.

 

[lerath666]

Not quite yet, but i will be. studing Game design and game teory, as well as 3d art, and animation. I've got less than a year to go till i get my Bachelors degree. And then it's into the wonderful world of the electronic entertainment industry

Word of advice, if you're not yet going to school for it, you should. you get tons of invaluble training, and most game companies are starting to require some sort of degree before they hire you. if you've NOT got one, you need to be something EXTREMELY special now. the reason they like you to have a degree of some sort is it shows dedication, and a drive to finish what you begin, something they want form anyone working on their projects.

And when you put it into those kind of terms, yeah, you do have a point that it is relatively cheaper than the film industry. what's far more frightening is that it brings in MORE money than hollywood as well

 

[lerath666]

Figured i'd toss this up while we're talking about animation. this is one of my FIRST 3d short films I did. it was originaly going to be much longer, but i ran out of time while working on it. the assignment was a skill demo of camera use, and lighting use. basicly, just letting us play with it. Beleive it or not, this was a fianl project too ( got a 90/100 on it, so i was proud) Anyways, there are some points where the camera got a little wonkey, like when it zooms over the table, or pans past the Biped, but overall, i was quite pleased.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3Nr21iF2HI

 

[A-1188]

Figured i'd toss this up while we're talking about animation. this is one of my FIRST 3d short films I did. it was originaly going to be much longer, but i ran out of time while working on it. the assignment was a skill demo of camera use, and lighting use. basicly, just letting us play with it. Beleive it or not, this was a fianl project too ( got a 90/100 on it, so i was proud) Anyways, there are some points where the camera got a little wonkey, like when it zooms over the table, or pans past the Biped, but overall, i was quite pleased.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3Nr21iF2HI

Is that Maya you used there?

 

[A-1188]

Ok, we have a spec of hope. Sega is looking for another developer to continue Aliens: CM.

Sega Looking for New Developer
Aliens CM News | Posted by Corporal Hicks on 17 Feb 2009 10:42 BST
Aliens CM News Variety.com has just posted up a new article stating that Colonial Marines isn't cancelled but maybe seeing release under a new developer:

"However, I've just spoken to a source in a very good position to know what's up with both games who told me that they're definitely not canceled. Production is expected to continue and the games, both of which are well into development, will come out. But quite possibly not with the developers they're at. "

This collaborates the information I've recieved from my own sources. However, just to build on what I've heard: The RPG isn't being canned. It is merely postponed while Obsidian concentrate their work on Alpha Protocol (the other Sega game they are working on). It is Colonial Marines that is in danger of changing hands. As you may have all read in various other articles, Sega is "reviewing" the quality of the game and my source is saying that Sega aren't too keen on what they see.

So we'll see. Just keep an eye out, here and various other gaming websites, for more news as it comes. Thanks to Cellien for the Variety article.

(avpgalaxy.net)

 

[lerath666]

Is that Maya you used there?

3ds max actualy. I have not started learning Maya yet. what i'm realling looking forward to however is Zbrush

 

[A-1188]

Cool, but Zbrush is actually specialised in skin rendering. I suggest you first learn modelling using Maya or 3D Max.

 

[lerath666]

Been learning max for about a year now I'll post some screens of my current projects when I'm done with them in a few weeks.

 

[darthviper107]

Cool, but Zbrush is actually specialised in skin rendering. I suggest you first learn modelling using Maya or 3D Max.

Actually, not so much, the rendering while you can do quite a bit, it doesn't have any SSS for skin so it's not as good as rendering with 3ds Max. I've done quite a bit of Zbrush over the last year, very fun. Done some Mudbox too, and while it's much easier to use, Zbrush has better performance.

I've got one semester after this to finish--3D animation degree. Been using 3ds Max for 6+ years

 

[A-1188]

Actually, not so much, the rendering while you can do quite a bit, it doesn't have any SSS for skin so it's not as good as rendering with 3ds Max. I've done quite a bit of Zbrush over the last year, very fun. Done some Mudbox too, and while it's much easier to use, Zbrush has better performance.

I've got one semester after this to finish--3D animation degree. Been using 3ds Max for 6+ years

Wow, what school are you in? Im hoping to get to study VFX and Concept design end of this summer in UK, that's a 3 year course.

 

[darthviper107]

Wow, what school are you in? Im hoping to get to study VFX and Concept design end of this summer in UK, that's a 3 year course.

I'm at John Brown University, not a big school at all, but they offer a 4-year degree in computer animation. It's the closest school that offers a full bachelor's degree, while there are other schools they just have 2-years. Although in Florida or California they've got some really good schools. But really the best stuff is online, the degree is just a main requirement by some employers.

 

[lerath666]

For what it's worth, I go online to westwood College. Great school. Highly recommend it.