Steve ‘Badman’ Hessel at Splash Damage let me know that they’ve got a new Brink team profile up on their official site. This week we meet media artist Jeremy ‘Pinflux’ Hay, who joined the team back in 2009. So what does Jeremy do? Here’s a look…
What do you do at Splash Damage?
I’m the Media Artist, and a part of Splash Damage’s marketing department. It’s my job to assist in encouraging you to drop your hard earned dollars/pounds/euros on our games once they’re released, all through creating shiny images and videos to dazzle and distract. My work ranges from taking screenshots of Brink to realising ridiculous holiday-specific concepts.
For more on Jeremy and the rest of Splash Damage’s team, head here.
Welcome to another round of Around the Web… step right up and read the news!
But first, with RAGE’s new trailer unveiled, we thought we share some archived coverage for those of you catching up on the title. Above is a GameTrailers’ interview (featuring gameplay) from QuakeCon last year with creative director Tim Willits. For more of RAGE (and Tim), check out the videos embedded here.
Moving along, one of my favorite stories of the year so far is this one I spotted a week back on Kotaku. It’s about a Fallout fan named Gareth. Unlike most of us, Gareth can’t play games with his hands, but he’s put together a setup that allows him to play games using his chin. Watch a video of him playing New Vegas here… cool, inspiring stuff.
Staying in the Mojave, last month we blogged about an ambitious mod project for New Vegas called Project Nevada. Those interested in checking out the mod can download it now at New Vegas Nexus.
Check out more on New Vegas at these sites…
British Academy of Film and Television Arts (that’s BAFTA) has announced their GAME British Academy Video Games Awards’ nominees with New Vegas receiving nominations for Best Strategy Game and Best Story
It’s been awhile since our last “Around the Web” update. So long that when I was compiling it, the beast grew a second head. Up first, we conquer news on Brink and Fallout: New Vegas.
Here’s a quick snippet of Evan’s interview with Mr. Stern…
There seems to be a lot of sociological commentary churning in the game’s environment and story. Where did you go for inspiration for that?
We want Brink to be sticky: both to draw players in and keep them imaginatively engaged, even when they’re not playing. The test of any character or scenario is whether it lives on in your imagination even after you’ve stopped playing the game, so we wanted to incorporate real world thematic content into the storylines for Brink for players to become engaged.
After the break, we’ve got more coverage on Brink — plus updates for New Vegas.
In a press release that just went out, we’ve announced the release dates for Brink (May 17th in North America, May 20th in Europe) and Hunted: The Demon’s Forge (June 1st in North America, June 3rd in Europe). The two games complete our Class of 2011 lineup, which also includes join RAGE (September 13th in North America, September 16th in Europe) and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (November 11th worldwide).
For more information, read the full press release below…
BETHESDA SOFTWORKS ANNOUNCES BLOCKBUSTER
2011 VIDEO GAME LINEUP
Brink and Hunted Release Dates Announced
January 27, 2011 (Rockville, MD) – Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax® Media company, today announced the release dates of four multiplatform AAA titles shipping in 2011. Brink™, Hunted: The Demon’s Forge™, RAGE™, and The Elder Scrolls® V: Skyrim™ are all slated for release on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, and Games for Windows.
Brink, an immersive first-person shooter under development at Splash Damage, will be available in North America on May 17th and in Europe on May 20th. Brink was named as the ‘Game of Show’ at Eurogamer Expo 2010, while G4TV.com declared “Brink takes shooters to a whole new level.” Blending single-player, co-op, and multiplayer action into one seamless experience, Brink features dynamic battlefields, extensive customization options, and an innovative control system.
Hunted, a fantasy action game, will be available in retail stores across North America on June 1st and on store shelves in Europe on June 3rd. Hunted is a fresh take on the classic dungeon crawl experience that delivers the intensity and action of a modern-day shooter. Hunted, under development at inXile Entertainment, has been called “A Dungeon Crawl for the Gears Age” by Kotaku.com and has been described by Eurogamer as “violent, deceptively thoughtful and witty.”
After a couple months on hiatus, our developer diaries for Brink return. This week Splash Damage’s audio director, Chris Sweetman, discusses his methodology for Brink’s sound design — covering everything from foley work to getting the perfect gun sound. And oh does Chris love gun sounds. If you’ve ever played the game BLACK (a game he previously worked on), you know you’re in for a treat with Brink.
Chris’ dev diary is accompanied by an arrangement he calls, “A Choir of Guns.”Watch it above.
Introduction
I’m Chris Sweetman, Audio Director at Splash Damage, and this developer diary is all about Brink’s sound design. What does an Audio Director do all day? Well, I’m responsible for the quality of everything that is heard in our games, including music, dialogue, and sound design. This can be broken down into various areas, including in-game gameplay, cut scenes, trailers and tons of other stuff.
I work with composers on music and licensing, actors on dialogue, and myself on sound design. I also have Simon Price – our dedicated Audio Programmer – working with me, without whom none of this would be possible.
Sonic Space
Having played many single player and multiplayer shooters, there was one thing that always concerned me – sonic space. In other words, how do you overcome the problem of having too many sounds all playing at the same time? When you have music, gunfire, dialogue, Foley, explosions, and ambient sounds all going off simultaneously, you’re generally left with aural mush. This was a problem we were determined to solve when beginning work on Brink.
I’d made some progress working on BLACK with the Choir of Guns concept, but it was evident early on that with Brink’s focus on blurring the lines between single and multiplayer, we had to up the ante . We wanted every sound in Brink to be heard perfectly, whether it was a Molotov cocktail exploding, a mini gun winding up, or a heavy body-type player coming round the corner to stomp on your face. These sounds were only going to be heard properly with enough space in the audio mix. If you consider that it’s entirely plausible to have 16 players in the same part of a level, all triggering the same sounds, then the true scope of this challenge becomes clear.
Continue reading the diary on Brink’s official website. Brink is slated for release this Spring.
Introduction
I’m Chris Sweetman, Audio Director at Splash Damage, and this developer diary is all about Brink’s sound design. What does an Audio Director do all day? Well, I’m responsible for the quality of everything that is heard in our games, including music, dialogue, and sound design. This can be broken down into various areas, including in-game gameplay, cut scenes, trailers and tons of other stuff.
I work with composers on music and licensing, actors on dialogue, and myself on sound design. I also have Simon Price – our dedicated Audio Programmer – working with me, without whom none of this would be possible.
Sonic Space
Having played many single player and multiplayer shooters, there was one thing that always concerned me – sonic space. In other words, how do you overcome the problem of having too many sounds all playing at the same time? When you have music, gunfire, dialogue, Foley, explosions, and ambient sounds all going off simultaneously, you’re generally left with aural mush. This was a problem we were determined to solve when beginning work on Brink.
When it comes to multi-faceted open world RPGs, everyone has their own priorities. As evidence of this phenomenon, we’ve been enjoying the following articles that guess/hope at Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim features:
Over the past few months, we’ve shared videos from the Beyond the Brink: 2010 European Parkour Tour – featuring freerunning expert Daniel Ilabaca. If you haven’t checked out the videos, we think you should…. they’re awesome. Above, I’ve posted some crazy action from the tour’s stop in Barcelona.
Before we get all festive at our holiday party this weekend, I thought I’d share some compelling coverage for our games.
Recently, there’s been some really great coverage for Brink. If you haven’t already, be sure to read CG Society’s feature on the game’s art direction — complete with never-before-seen concept art for the game (like the image below)
Additionally, in the past week, Time.com’s Techland has had a couple features on the game. Head there to read Evan Narcisse’s quick-look preview, as well as an interview with Richard Ham and Paul Wedgwood.
