Week 37
This week we had the visit of our new producer, Herve. We spent two days together discussing the game and marketing. Apart from Cindy, marketing manager (who in particular worked on the marketing of Tomb Raider), whom I will only meet next week, we now know the people who are going to collaborate with us on Omikron.
Herve, main producer (a Frenchman which makes communication much easier), Philip Campbell (senior producer and talented game designer), Tom Marx (Associate producer US) and Susan Boshkoff (Us marketing manager) form the Omikron team. We are really happy to be working with these guys. All of them are extremely motivated by Omikron and have the firm determination of making it a hit.
As the end of development draws close, pressure will increase and it is best to be surrounded by people you appreciate and respect.
The next important deadline for us is of course the E3 which will be held in Atlanta around May 30th. It is there that the game will be officially presented to the press and to distributors. It is also there that we will know whether Omikron has a chance of being one of the hits of Christmas 98.
The pressure around this event is of course huge. The objective is to present a version of the game playable with the main sequences of Game Play (Adventure, Shoot, Fighting). To cut it short, a lot of work in store.
A computer image film will certainly be made for this occasion to be projected onto an image wall and to serve as a basis for communication and marketing.
According to the first marketing plan we have drawn up, the E3 should really be the true starting point of communication about Omikron. Marketing is very important for us, and we intend to collaborate to the maximum with the Eidos people to help them communicate about the game.
Development is continuing, with progress in graphics, and the official start of the Shoot part of the game, under the responsibility of Pierre. Philip Campbell has sent us a large set of documents from the United States for drawing up the Game Play, which served us as a basis for the design of these sequences.
The production of graphics is drawing to an end. We will be able to start to get into the work of retouching so as to really get down to the details of each set, to make it live by adding the small details, and ensure the graphic coherence of the whole. As in all games, the latest sets created are better looking than the very first ones. So we are about to go over them to bring them all up to scratch.
On the programming side, the objective as from February is to script into IAM one section of the game per month (there are six in total). If we hold to this rhythm, that will leave us enough time to test the game and refine the Game Play. For this, we need to have a team of testers available from March.
As from February, "Game Play" becomes our key word. The technical part is now virtually finished, as well as the graphics. The toughest now remains to be done: playability.
It is now the moment of truth: knowing whether all the work we have been putting in these past two years, the tools we have developed, the graphics, the animations, the technical and playability choices we have made, actually make a game. Everybody has great faith in it
Omikron, as designed, will certainly be the first game of its generation to offer such freedom of movement, such complexity and such a variety in its universe.
The week coming up will be devoted to adding the last options still lacking in IAM allowing the start of the scripting of the adventure. This concerns chiefly the interfacing with our publisher of the functions already written by Fabien. So everything should be ready.
See you next week for further adventures....
Autor: David Cage
Source: Quantic Dream
11/01/1999 Eidos Interactive ships Omikron: The Nomad Soul
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Monday, January 26, 1998