Category Archives: Developers

Point Lookout Diary, Screens (Updated)

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Hello from London. Just wanted to let you know on the Fallout 3 Official Site, we’ve got a new Team Diary for Point Lookout. The diary was written by Joel Burgess and Nate Purkeypile, Lead Designer and Lead Artist for Point Lookout, respectively. In the diary, they discuss how DLC #4 came to be, and even share early images from the project’s development.

In addition to the diary, we’ve uploaded six new screenshots — including the image above. Head here to see the rest.

Point Lookout will be available for download on Xbox LIVE and Games for Windows LIVE this coming Tuesday, June 23.

Update: In related news, The Hachiko interviewed Joel Burgess and Jeff Gardiner to discuss Point Lookout and Mothership Zeta. Read the interview here. Jeff was also interviewed for Platform Nation.

E3 Roundup: More Brink Coverage

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We hope you all had a great weekend. Here’s a catch up on some of the new coverage out for Brink.

We begin with Team Xbox, who announced their Best of E3 2009 Awards — naming Brink the Most Innovative title at the show. Below is a snippet from the feature:

“The innovation that really hit us where we live was the mission design of Brink, the shooter from Splash Damage that ever so subtly is blurring the lines between multiplayer and single player gameplay.”

Below are some more accolades the game received following E3…

  • Best New IP — 411 Mania
  • Most Likely to Succeed — Examiner
  • Post E3 Games to Watch — MSN UK Tech
  • Best Games of E3 (Selection) — Inc Gamers
  • E3 Hidden Gems — Guardian
  • Best Shooter (Runner Up) — Gamespot
  • Shooter of the Show (Runner Up), Multiplatform Game of Show (Runner Up), Best New IP (Runner Up) and Best Multiplayer Game (Runner Up) — GameSpy

There’s a few developer interviews from the show worth checking too. Inc Gamers has a new video interview with Richard Ham and Ed Stern — watch it here. Seems like Richard was pretty busy with interviews — you can hear more from him at Joystiq, Machinima (via YouTube), and Blast Magazine.

In preview coverage, Xbox 360 Achievements has their E3 preview up. Here’s an excerpt:

“However, with the beautiful world you’re thrown into, who’d want to drive when you can walk everywhere and soak in the almost cel-shaded scenery – it’s a truly great art style. Everything visually about the game screams class; from the sparse virtual texturing, the detailed characters with high polygon count, to the large and vivid environments. Simply put, BRINK is a bloody beautiful sight to feast your eyes upon.”

Additional previews are up at HipHopGamerShow, Eurogamer, Worth Playing, CrispyGamer, and N-Philes.

What we’re playing: Mars Multiplayer Edition

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This week for what we’re playing, rather than picking one game to highlight based on my own observations, I asked the team which game they’d like to see featured. By a narrow margin, Red Faction: Guerilla edged out inFamous and The Sims 3. Perhaps the incentive of getting an ostrich hammer put it over the edge.

Now that you know what we’re playing, let us know the games you’re currently enjoying.

Chris Esko: Heading to Mars in Red Faction: Guerilla and finishing up Plants Vs. Zombies.

Matt Grandstaff: inFamous, Punch-Out!!, and maybe some Fable 2 or RE5.

Evan Miller: Resident Evil 5.

Jon DeVriendt, QA: Red Faction: Guerrilla, Killzone 2, Dawn of War 2, and Zeno Clash.

Mike Scharf: Mass Effect and Resident Evil 5.

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Behind the Scenes (A2M) — Patrick Fortier

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Regulars to Bethesda Blog are familiar with our Inside the Vault blog posts — sort of a meet & greet of developers at Bethesda Games Studios. With all the external projects we’ve got going, we thought we’d venture outside the vault so you can meet the folks working on these projects.

Up first, we’ve got Patrick Fortier from A2M — the team behind WET.

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New Splash Damage developer profile

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Badman at Splash Damage let me know there’s a new “Things You Were Too Afraid to Ask” developer profile on Splash Damage’s website. This time around, Audio Programmer Simon ‘Bazee’ Price talks about his job, his favorite game, and his awesome haircut. Here’s an excerpt:

How did you end up at Splash Damage?

Simon: I’d heard that Splash Damage were the best. I’d played Quake Wars and I very much enjoyed the depth of game play and the focus on teamwork. So when my current job was up, I went straight to Splash Damage and found that what I’d heard wasn’t far off the mark. I was extremely happy when Splash Damage offered me a position.

To read the rest of the interview, head here. Stay tuned for more information on our project with Splash Damage.

What we’re playing

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With a long weekend, those that didn’t take a a vacation from their PCs and game consoles had plenty of time to catch up on games. I see a few folks checking out Punch-Out!! on Wii, the PS3 demo for inFamous, and office favorites like Dawn of War II, Team Fortress 2, and Plants vs. Zombies.

 Hope you all had a great weekend. Let us know what you played.

Chris Esko, Gameplay Programmer: Red Faction: Guerilla multiplayer demo, Demigod, Team Fortres 2, Plants vs. Zombies.

Daryl Brigner, Level Designer: Mass Effect (PC), Team Fortress 2 (PC), and possibly some Shadow of the Colossus.

Cory Dornbusch, QA Medic: Dodging Jarate wielding Snipers in Team Fortress 2. Then get stuck in with the boyz in Dawn of War 2, after that try “little rocket man” for Half Life 2 Ep.2.

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What we’re playing

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The weekend’s nearly over — for many of us, it’s been full of games. Popular games at the office this week include Resident Evil 5, Killzone 2, Dawn of War 2, and Peggle — which has found it’s way onto many of our iPhones. Having just purchased it on DS, I’m trying to show some restraint.

Jay Woodward, Pink Deathclaw Rustler: F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin and misc. board games (Amun Re, Dominion, Space Dealer, and/or Race for the Galaxy).

Andrew Scharf: Resident Evil 5, Peggle for iPhone.

Craig Lafferty, Senior Producer: Sacred 2, Zen Pinball, and Tiger Woods 2009.

Mike Dulany, Programmer: Peggle (iPhone), RE:5, Killzone 2.

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A trio of developer profiles for Splash Damage

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Splash Damage’s community guy, Steve ‘Badman’ Hessel, gave me a head’s up on three new developer profiles up on the Splash Damage site. In their latest “Things You Were Too Afraid to Ask Feature,” we get to learn more about Online Services Programmer Ed ‘MrEd’ Reid, Programmer Diogo ‘fozi’ Teixeira, and Technical Environment Artist Radek ‘ElDonaldo’ Szczepanczyk.

We continue to work with Splash Damage on a new project, and we’ll be sharing more details on the game soon.

What we’re playing

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The weekend is here and it’s time to play games. So what’s the hot new game to play at the office? I’ve heard a few guys raving about Plants vs. Zombies, a garden-fresh take on the “tower defense” genre, made by the team at Pop Cap (Peggle). If you’re interested in giving it a shot, try the demo here.

Have a great weekend.

Jesse Tucker, Level Design: Plants vs. Zombies, TF2. Puzzle Quest has relinquished its stranglehold.

Emil Pagliarulo: Wolverine for 360, Velvet Assassin for 360, and Lord of the Rings Online.

Steve Meister: Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Banjo-Tooie Xbox Live Arcade, and iPhone Scrabble.

Cory Dornbusch: The Charlie Kelly of QA: Fallout 3 Broken Steel.

Brent Krische, QA: Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures, LittleBigPlanet, and hopefully some Fallout 3 over the weekend.

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