Julian Eggebrecht interview. Talks about Germany, Lair (motion controls), and Wii.

I loved Lair. :shrug: Not hard at all to fly. But then, I dont suck at games. Glad to see them producing more games. Ive got a Wii too, so its good news to me.
 
Lair was alright, got tricky near the end with multiple objectives, but still it looked awesome, especially the water effects...
 
Rebel Strike was a pretty, but boring game. The 3rd-person controls were quite terrible, with non-functional aiming and ridiculously stiff animation. That's something they would need to improve if they wanted to do a non-flying game.
 
vazel said:
The Rogue Squadron games on N64/Gamecube were great. They also made Battle for Naboo which isn't part of the proper Rogue Squadron games but is in the same gameplay style. A really neat thing about Battle for Naboo on N64 is it was one of the first games(if not the first) to have making of extras(developer commentary on each level). They also knew how to make great on-foot games, they made Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine on the N64 which most of you probably didn't play because it had a limited release. IIRC Factor 5 even contributed their talent to Gamecube SDK tools. There was a reason why Lair was so hyped, Factor 5 used to have quite a rep. Maybe they'll vindicate themselves on the Wii.
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Oh no, don't get me wrong, I do like their games, but it would be nice to see something that doesn't involve flying again. I mean, they've been doing too many flying game that it feels like they've forgotten how to make a ground based game.
 
StefanS said:
I think the financial prospects were the far more decisive factor here.
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Oh, I agree. But that wasn't their reasoning in other games. On previous titles they've always talked about developing on the best hardware, and not following the best economic prospects. Wii games built on their GC experience make by far the most sense for Factor 5, especially in the light of galloping sales. Last gen they picked a platform and watched it not get very far. This gen they could have picked 'the most powerful platform' and stuck with it like they did GC, but they've had the smarts to see 'hang on, we could probably make a ton of dough on that Wii machine!' and are going for it. This is in contrast to last gen where they didn't try to make PS2 games despite PS2 offering a far larger market especially for their style of games. And prior to that, moving from PlayStation to N64 only for 64 to be the smaller market again.

The developer needs a more balanced, adaptable approach to the games market I think, targeting different titles to different platforms rather than just picking a machine and slogging away on it. Unless someone's paying them good money to stick to a platform.
 
Shifty Geezer said:
Producing good games that people want is far more important than creating amazing technology.

Thus the whole 'most powerful hardware' attitude is dropped and he takes a far more sensible approach to game development, choosing a platform not based on specs alone but lots of other criteria.
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While I agree with good games being more important, I don't think the absymal 3rd party sales on the platform were particularly encouraging for Factor 5. Developing for the Wii has probably got a lot more to do with budgetary constraints and lack of publisher trust after Lair.
 
Whichever hardware they choose, their main problem isn't their platform of choice, it's their ability to design compelling gameplay scenarios, or lack thereof. Change the motion controls to regular controls, change the controller, change the dragons to x-wings, we're still dealing with timed missions with the player having to rush from one end of the battlefield to another rushing to kill something then fly back to bomb something else, without really enjoying himself. It's not compelling gameplay, it's not fun gameplay, switching to the wii sure as hell isn't going to save Factor 5 unless they change the way they design gameplay.
 
They need to go back to their roots - Turrican HD for Live and PSN[SIZE=-1]. No fancy new gimmicks, just a solid 2d platformer with 3d graphics and a [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]Chris Huelsbeck soundtrack. It [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]would be every aging gamer's wet dream.[/SIZE]
 
Trawler said:
They need to go back to their roots - Turrican HD for Live and PSN[SIZE=-1]. No fancy new gimmicks, just a solid 2d platformer with 3d graphics and a [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]Chris Huelsbeck soundtrack. It [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]would be every aging gamer's wet dream.[/SIZE]
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Sure, and fire 90% of the people - you don't think you can support Lair personnel on a XBLA budget, do you?
 
Kittonwy said:
we're still dealing with timed missions with the player having to rush from one end of the battlefield to another rushing to kill something then fly back to bomb something else, without really enjoying himself.
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While certain missions make sense timed (speeder bike chases, rescue missions), some were incredibly aggravating. Like taking down a whole star destroyer in B-Wing with only worthless AI wingmen to help.
 
Kittonwy said:
Whichever hardware they choose, their main problem isn't their platform of choice, it's their ability to design compelling gameplay scenarios, or lack thereof. Change the motion controls to regular controls, change the controller, change the dragons to x-wings, we're still dealing with timed missions with the player having to rush from one end of the battlefield to another rushing to kill something then fly back to bomb something else, without really enjoying himself. It's not compelling gameplay, it's not fun gameplay, switching to the wii sure as hell isn't going to save Factor 5 unless they change the way they design gameplay.
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Don't change the controller, just offer options to use both. That's the best way to do it. So far, the motion controls are the main attraction for me for a game like Lair, and I've heard from several reliable sources that the motion controls actually work fine. There are just some major disappointments in game design, and some in graphics too.
 
I'll ask this here since I don't want to drudge up the old Lair thread.

Can anyone give me some insight as to why there has never been an analog control patch for this game? Also, why a demo has never been released...now that the game is available in all territories? I'm utterly confused. It seems to me that both of these things, now, would only serve to help increase possible future sales. I'm still curious about LAIR (despite all that has been said about it), and I'm sure there a many others that are just like me.
 
Both would require extra money, which would basically go out of the window, considering the game's low sales.
 
Laa-Yosh said:
Both would require extra money, which would basically go out of the window, considering the game's low sales.
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They already have two different demos and you can't tell me that they never mapped the controls to analog at any time during development. Seriously, there is no way that this has anything to do with cost.
 
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