Another UK developer dies. This time, for good.

Redlambs

Creator of the Caftards comics
Joined
Aug 22, 2006
Messages
43,320
Location
Officially the best poker player on RAWK.
Another UK game developer dies. This time, for good.

News: Ignition closes dev studios, WarDevil is dead again - ComputerAndVideoGames.com

Well after rumoured closing down late last year, the final remnants of Ignition's London team (formerly Digi-guys, and Haus Teknikka) have ceased to exist. Their twin sister in Austin, Texas has gone too.

This is all down to three men, the guy in charge in Austin, the one in England and the CEO (who is actually a top bloke) who got talked into multi-million pound errors. Wardevil, for example, was touted at 1080p @ 60fps before the machine was even finalised (or more exact, before the PS3 was even announced to developers, in fact even before the game was started development on the Gamecube!), and the studio set up with top end film and Motion Capture equipment ready for this 'huge' project. Millions wasted.

The point of this thread really is simply to mourn the loss of yet another independant game development studio, and possibly publisher, all because two men with far more mouth than talent can damage the industry and cost the livelihood of probably over 100 people. It happens far too often.

For once, even piracy can't be blamed here. Oh and for the record, the very original dev team on the project would have delivered this game on the last generation, before they were stabbed in the back.
 
My god! That's crazy, the amount of money that they've probably tipped down the drain. It was a crazy idea in the first place though, because didn't they have the idea of making a game and a film at the same time using the same assets?
 
WeasteDevil said:
My god! That's crazy, the amount of money that they've probably tipped down the drain. It was a crazy idea in the first place though, because didn't they have the idea of making a game and a film at the same time using the same assets?
Click to expand...

The graphics pipeline and creating hi/lo res assets was actually quite good and would have worked on some level. The problem is that they had real top end Sony production equipment, serious HD film level and all that cost created before the project was even started. The first ever video (I'm not sure if it was released) was demo'd on a Gamecube and was pure pre-renderd (on a large render farm I might add).

Then when you decide to make big bold claims in the press and put the development team under pressure, then stab them in the back when you don't get your own way - there's bound to be problems.


WeasteDevil said:
What state is the game in? Could we see a Duke and 3D Realms type situation where somebody else tries to finish it after scraping up the bits from the administrator for basically nothing?
Click to expand...

I highly doubt then engine was even partially finished. The guy (yes one guy) I know of working on it was a top fella, but it was part time freelance.

That's before you even begin with the mess of the game design :lol:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.