Category Archives: Splash Damage

Around the web

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The internet asked me to pass along this information on our games. I’m happy to comply.

GameStop.com is currently running their GameDays10 promotion, and one of their deals is that you can pick up Fallout 3 (PS3, 360) for a low price of $19.99. Head here for more details.

GamePro has a new interview with Brink’s Game Director Paul Wedgwood. It’s a good read with information about Splash Damage and their work on Brink. Here’s a snippet:

GamePro: How has the group’s history helped in the creation and building of a new IP?

Paul Wedgwood: The idea of setting a game inside a floating arcology was actually one of the first things I wanted to do even before we founded Splash Damage, but the technology to really pull that off wasn’t available at the time. When we were close to finishing up Enemy Territory: Quake Wars in 2007 and starting to think about our next game, that idea immediately popped back into my head, and I worked with Ed Stern, now our Lead Writer, to come up with a compelling narrative for it.

For more on Brink check out new interviews with Creative Director Richard Ham and NowGamer and IncGamers.

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Brink site re-launches, includes cool new footage and features

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It’s an exciting day for Brink. On top of the cinematic trailer release, the official site has received a radical makeover.

For instance, check out the flashy Ark walkthrough, which provides an introduction to the various locales you’ll run, jump and dive across on the mid-ocean, war-torn island.

Also be sure to hit up the features page, which provides a run-down of Brink’s advanced character customization, as well as new in-game video highlighting the game’s SMART movement system.

And definitely head over to the community portal to sign up for the Brink newsletter; we’ll be sharing some interesting info on it that you won’t want to miss.

Enjoy the new content, and be sure to let us know what you think in the comments.

Brink Developer Diary #3 — Ed Stern

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In the first two Developer Diaries for Brink, Game Director Paul Wedgwood introduced you to Brink and the team behind it, while Art Director Olivier Leonardi talked in depth about the direction of the game’s art style.

In this third diary, Lead Writer Ed Stern explains how Brink’s environment communicates the game’s narrative.

Here’s Ed!

The Writing on the Wall

At Splash Damage, we believe that a game’s environment is the best narrative medium we have. Compelling environments allow players to pull in information from their surroundings without having to be held hostage by an NPC lecturing them on The Way Things Were. We knew we wanted to use our game environments to tell the story, so they’d need to be packed with detail.

We created a design goal internally called IDC:  Instant/Deep Context. Basically it’s the old axiom “Show, don’t Tell”. If we get IDC right, then when the player looks at a game asset they immediately and intuitively grasp where they are (that’s the “Instant” part). And the more they look at the assets, the more the cumulative narrative detail builds up, and the more they see how the game world works and how it came to be that way (that’ll be the “Deep”).

So, how did we go about creating the story and setting for Brink?

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Meet the Brink team: Jaromir ‘pg’ Salaj

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Badman at Splash Damage let me know they’ve got a new developer profile — this time with Texture Artist Jaromir ‘pg’ Salaj — up on their official site. While I suggest you read the whole thing, here’s a tease to give you a ‘feel’ for the interview…

How did you end up at Splash Damage?

I was looking for some adventure and Splash Damage were looking for texture artist. The company had a great reputation, so I applied. At the beginning of the interview, they let me sit alone for 10 minutes in a room full of Brink concept art. Honestly, that was a waste of nine minutes! After one minute, I realized that I REALLY want to work on this! And then bunch of quite relaxed guys entered the room, so I pretended that I could speak English. It worked!

A touching story indeed. To learn more about the people at Splash Damage, head here.

Meet the Brink team: Jose ‘mojo’ Esteve

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Tools Programmer Jose ‘mojo’ Esteve is the latest Brink developer to be profiled on Splash Damage’s website. Since I get many emails each week asking about how to get a job in the game industry, I thought I’d share his answer…

Do you have any tips for people wanting to break in?

I strongly believe that you have to be passionate and love what you do, because in the end that shows and helps you to keep focused — and be stubborn — enough to achieve what you want.

Instead of relying on predefined “musts” for your career, talent and skills are probably the most valuable features you need to develop. A good education is crucial to get solid grounds, but I think that in the end rather than being queried about your titles during an interview you’ll likely be asked about “What can you do?” – and in that case it’s better to let your work speak for you. It doesn’t need to be professional work: spend time on personal projects, which will serve to honestly prove your skills. And if you don’t have enough time for them (hey, sleeping is overrated :) ) you can try focusing your education towards something you can use in a portfolio.

Thanks for the answer, Jose! To learn more about him and his role at Splash Damage, head here.

Meet the Brink Team: Angelo Dal Pra

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Splash Damage has a new developer profile up at their site — this week you can get to know environment artist Angelo ‘clasact’ Dal Pra. I’d try to explain what he does for a living, but he does such a good job answering that himself, I’ll leave you with this excerpt…

What do you do at Splash Damage?

I’m an Environment Artist here at Splash Damage. I create assets, props, textures and sometimes assemble them in a nice way. I also work closely with our level designers and fellow artists trying to make our levels as beautiful and interesting as possible.

Find out more on Angelo at Splash Damage’s website.

Around the web

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This week at USA Today’s Game Hunters, Todd Howard shares his favorites games of the Naughties, Aughties, Oughties, or simply the 2000′s. Already his comments about Gran Turismo 3 have had traction (tires…traction…get it??) with readers. To see the rest of his favs, head here.

Read more after the break…

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New Splash Damage Developer Profile: John “Nifty” Molloy

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Splash Damage is hosting a new developer profile on Brink designer John Molloy, or “Nifty” as he’s been called since childhood. According to Splash: “Procedurally generated by the great Meme-Mills of Tartary, John is one if not all of the Lagrangian points of the Design team, remaining motionless against the gravitational tug of our Enthusiasms and Fears.”

Says John of his favorite game:

Must have co-op, must be action orientated, and must have a strong story. I’m going to go with The Secret of Mana on the Super Nintendo, a 3 player co-op RPG.

The profile even includes a cameo by John’s mum, who details the ins and outs of British video game systems circa 1983. Give it a read on the Splash Damage site.

Brink Character Customization Video, and Some Slick Posters

Want to get a look at just how deep the character customization is for Brink? Splash Damage director Paul Wedgwood gives us a taste in the above walkthrough video, now available to view in HD on the Bethesda YouTube Channel.

The new clothing-centric clip was also sent to several sites via mail, with some snazzy posters and unique packaging to accompany it. Many of them have since shared shots of the various accoutrements, including Kotaku, Crave Online,  VG247, Destructoid, Major Nelson, Xbox 360 Achievements, Techland,  GamingOnly, GameBlog.Fr and PS3trophies. If you’ve seen others, let us know.

And if you’re in Europe and looking for hands-on coverage of Brink, Splash Damage put together the following list of magazines featuring the game this month:

  • PC Zone
  • Play3
  • PC Jeux
  • Joystick
  • Xbox 360 – The Official Magazine
  • PlayStation – Official Magazine
  • PC Action
  • Power Unlimited
  • Hobbyconsolas

Plenty more Brink info is on the way soon, so stay on the alert — like this guy.

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