July News 1
There's been no news from me for weeks now, but there were so many things going on that it was hard to find a little piece and quiet to sit down and write this News.
The first (and bad) news is that Omikron won't be out for Christmas 98 but some time in 99. We got behind with the game tools and this slows up integrating the Game Play. And as we didn't want to sacrifice the quality and playability of the final game, we decided in agreement with Eidos to give it some more time. Omikron has been in development for hardly more than a year, which is pretty short for such an ambitious game.
The time has also come for us to think about future projects. A lot of the graphics crew have already finished their work on Omikron and there is a lot of debate about starting other projects. Of course we've got lots of ideas, the ace technology and tools we developed for Omikron, a team of 32 talented and efficient people – in short, all we could want to be able to view the future with confidence.
I'll let you know as soon as a new project has been signed.
Philip Campbell, designer of Tomb Raider Gold, is back with us this week. He has officially asked Eidos to work only on Quantic Dream games. His work with the team is coming along well in spite of the language barrier. His talent and generosity make all the difference. So he should be in on Quantic's future projects.
On the development front I left my position as project manager to Olivier who was formerly our chief graphics man. This enable me to devote myself more fully to the Game Play settings of Omikron and to elaborating future projects. Pierre, who used to be leading graphic artist, has now become head of graphics.
This little event in the life of our team is not without importance. Team management is often what makes the difference between the success or failure of a project. We decided to opt for internal promotion by giving responsibilities to those who wanted it and who had proved their competence.
Our two new programmers Frederic and Stephane, both of them engineers, seem to be fitting in very well. Frederic has made good progress with GEM and the integration of colored lights and reflections (in water and mirrors, for example). Stephane is taking charge of IAM and organizing the development of the last options that were still missing.
The PlayStation team is a great source of satisfaction. The team, led by the famous Jean-Charles, consists of Olivier, Christophe and Eric. Having optimized the collisions, Olivier finished the passage in high resolution mode in record time.
The objective for ECTS is to integrate the passers by who stroll about the streets.
The porting of IAM in the near future will enable us to have the PC and PlayStation versions of the game at the same standard.
We're counting a lot on this version, which should push back the limits of PlayStation.
The special effects are coming along too, after a long period on hold because of other priorities. Francois and Antoine have finished a special FX editor which enables us to create real time effects directly in the game and synchronized with the animation.
This will enable Christian to create the light effects for the powers and weapons as well as some other interesting things.
To finish off, a little secret: negotiations are under way to have a very famous international musician involved in Omikron. I hope to make an official announcement in September.
Thanks for your loyalty and keep mailing us.
Later.
PS: Americans, have a look in this month's Next Generation. There's a very good four page article on Omikron, with screenshots and exclusive interviews.
Italians, buy Game Machines. There's another very good four page article in it on Omikron (Ciao Claudio!).
French readers should keep an eye out for the September/October issue for more information on Omikron.
Autor: David Cage
Source: Quantic Dream
11/01/1999 Eidos Interactive ships Omikron: The Nomad Soul
09/23/1998 September News 2
09/15/1998 September News 1
07/28/1998 July News 2
07/14/1998 July News 1
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Tuesday, July 14, 1998