TheWHAMBurglar
First time out of the vault
I have been trying to figure out what had killed Black Isle.
I have read:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_77/440-The-Rise-and-Fall-of-Troika.3
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Black_Isle
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/fallout3/news_6085243.html
http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/january01/blackisle/
However, I have been looking for primary sources, tangible data that can show a pattern over time. Contract agreements, finical data, staff rosters, statements anything really. I have been starved for data due to the fact that their forums are no longer on-line. No sources are provided by the Escapist article either!
So far I can only guess and derive:
They were understaffed?:
“Boyarsky offers a bit more insight into what was happening inside Troika's doors: "As I said before ... a large part of Troika's existence was 'crunch mode' with important decisions being made on the fly without the time needed to fully assess the impacts of those decisions."”
Which resulted in buggy games?:
"Publishers aren't interested in games from developers that consistently turn out B titles. Unfortunately, although our games had depth and vision, we were never able to release a game that had been thoroughly tested and rid of bugs. The large quantity of errors in our product automatically rendered them B titles."
Contract limitations?:
"Right or wrong, we just needed more time to test and polish the games, and none of our three publishers were willing to give it to us. Each and every game was pulled out of our hands before we were through with it. In all fairness, I have to say that we were late and over budget, but that still does not justify giving the public an unfinished product."
I have no contracts to examine.
External economic conditions?:
Boyarsky tells me, but since all of their games released in the midst of the dot-com bust, game production wasn't really a seller's market.
Techinical difficulties and patents on existing technology?:
On top of that, they were using a prototype of the Source engine, one that didn't yet have Valve's high-class AI built in, and Troika's AI code didn't play very nice with Source.
Besides Heart of Winter, which is due out early this year, the team is also working on a product that uses the LithTech engine, and is best described as a medieval version of Fallout, he said. "We have some other products that we are starting up right now, but we aren't far enough along to really talk about them yet."
A combination of all of the above?
It seems to be a mystery.
I have read:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_77/440-The-Rise-and-Fall-of-Troika.3
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Black_Isle
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/fallout3/news_6085243.html
http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/january01/blackisle/
However, I have been looking for primary sources, tangible data that can show a pattern over time. Contract agreements, finical data, staff rosters, statements anything really. I have been starved for data due to the fact that their forums are no longer on-line. No sources are provided by the Escapist article either!
So far I can only guess and derive:
They were understaffed?:
“Boyarsky offers a bit more insight into what was happening inside Troika's doors: "As I said before ... a large part of Troika's existence was 'crunch mode' with important decisions being made on the fly without the time needed to fully assess the impacts of those decisions."”
Which resulted in buggy games?:
"Publishers aren't interested in games from developers that consistently turn out B titles. Unfortunately, although our games had depth and vision, we were never able to release a game that had been thoroughly tested and rid of bugs. The large quantity of errors in our product automatically rendered them B titles."
Contract limitations?:
"Right or wrong, we just needed more time to test and polish the games, and none of our three publishers were willing to give it to us. Each and every game was pulled out of our hands before we were through with it. In all fairness, I have to say that we were late and over budget, but that still does not justify giving the public an unfinished product."
I have no contracts to examine.
External economic conditions?:
Boyarsky tells me, but since all of their games released in the midst of the dot-com bust, game production wasn't really a seller's market.
Techinical difficulties and patents on existing technology?:
On top of that, they were using a prototype of the Source engine, one that didn't yet have Valve's high-class AI built in, and Troika's AI code didn't play very nice with Source.
Besides Heart of Winter, which is due out early this year, the team is also working on a product that uses the LithTech engine, and is best described as a medieval version of Fallout, he said. "We have some other products that we are starting up right now, but we aren't far enough along to really talk about them yet."
A combination of all of the above?
It seems to be a mystery.
