Draft:Chris Sorrell: Difference between revisions

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'''Chris Sorrell''': ''[[MediEvil]]'' presented a real mountain of challenges. The game started life as a project of a small, cash-strapped independent developer – [[Millennium Interactive]]. In addition to bringing together a brand new team – none of whom had really made a 3D game of this scale before – we were in ‘sell’ mode almost from day one, with the future of the studio riding on our ability to attract a major publishing deal as quickly as possible.
'''Chris Sorrell''': ''[[MediEvil]]'' presented a real mountain of challenges. The game started life as a project of a small, cash-strapped independent developer – [[Millennium Interactive]]. In addition to bringing together a brand new team – none of whom had really made a 3D game of this scale before – we were in ‘sell’ mode almost from day one, with the future of the studio riding on our ability to attract a major publishing deal as quickly as possible.


We were initially working on multiple platforms including Windows and Sega Saturn as well as PlayStation before we finally had the chance to demo the game for Sony. Thankfully that was probably our best pitch ever: SCEE had some really inspiring people in management, they loved ''MediEvil'', and within a few weeks we were signed to make an exclusive [[PlayStation]] game. In a few more months we became [[SCE Cambridge Studio|Sony’s second studio in the UK]].
We were initially working on multiple platforms including Windows and Sega Saturn as well as PlayStation before we finally had the chance to demo the game for Sony. Thankfully that was probably our best pitch ever: SCEE had some really inspiring people in management, they loved ''MediEvil'', and within a few weeks we were signed to make an exclusive PlayStation game. In a few more months we became [[SCE Cambridge Studio|Sony’s second studio in the UK]].


Of course another layer of challenge came from the fact that, like most other developers at that time, we were still feeling our way with 3D. Things like camera and character control presented a lot of interesting new challenges and required us to try out a number of approaches before we settled on solutions that seemed to work.
Of course another layer of challenge came from the fact that, like most other developers at that time, we were still feeling our way with 3D. Things like camera and character control presented a lot of interesting new challenges and required us to try out a number of approaches before we settled on solutions that seemed to work.
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I don't know if every one of those ideas would have stuck had I directed M2 myself, but I passed them all over to James Shepherd during a couple of meetings we had at the start of the project. After the first such meeting a couple of things we'd been discussing clicked together and I went into the second session with a sketch of Dan's head atop one of the severed hands - the basis for [[Dan-hand]].
I don't know if every one of those ideas would have stuck had I directed M2 myself, but I passed them all over to James Shepherd during a couple of meetings we had at the start of the project. After the first such meeting a couple of things we'd been discussing clicked together and I went into the second session with a sketch of Dan's head atop one of the severed hands - the basis for [[Dan-hand]].


James ran with the ideas and - of course - introduced many of his own. Jason was involved too, although I don't know how he and James worked together. Overall I liked most of what they came up with for M2, although I disliked the [[Winston, the Help Ghost|squeaky voiced helper ghost]], and definitely in places the game's humour crossed a line for me from the silly/bawdy tone we had in M1 to something a little too puerile for my liking! (I guess the [[Professor ]] embodied a lot of that.) I would also have definitely kept the [[Hall of Heroes]] since I always thought that was one of the more distinctive presentational mechanics we created in M1, oh and Dan's voice was *horrible* - incoherent mumbling was a far better way to go!
James ran with the ideas and - of course - introduced many of his own. Jason was involved too, although I don't know how he and James worked together. Overall I liked most of what they came up with for M2, although I disliked the [[Winston, the Help Ghost|squeaky voiced helper ghost]], and definitely in places the game's humour crossed a line for me from the silly/bawdy tone we had in M1 to something a little too puerile for my liking! (I guess the [[Professor]] embodied a lot of that.) I would also have definitely kept the [[Hall of Heroes]] since I always thought that was one of the more distinctive presentational mechanics we created in M1, oh and Dan's voice was *horrible* - incoherent mumbling was a far better way to go!


On balance I was probably more in tune with what they did in M2 than the changes that were made in MPSP.
On balance I was probably more in tune with what they did in M2 than the changes that were made in MPSP.