McNamara (The Getaway), new Team Bondi and a PS3 game

[McFly]

Article and a very interesting interview: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=54626

Flush with the success of the three-million-selling The Getaway, McNamara and a bunch of former Team Soho colleagues recently founded Team Bondi, signed a "long-term exclusive" deal with SCEA and got to work on an as-yet-untitled PlayStation 3 title (no it's not coming out on PSP, before you ask).

Perhaps tellingly, McNamara revealed that he's off to Japan to "do some research", so make of that what you will. A crime caper in Tokyo perhaps? A job advert for the Lead Tools Programmer reveals the team working on the game will be 100 strong, and further down the job spec for Lead AI Programmer states the team is "targeting the most challenging character AI ever seen in a video game", with the AI system "simulating 200+ real-world agents for a real time, single player, story-focused game".

Kristan Reed: Is the PS3 going to be easier for developers to get to grips with than the PS2?

Brendan McNamara: I don't think that is the big issue. There are loads of quality programmers in the world who will harness the potential of any new console. The big issue is to meet the expectations of the public. In our case the feature set that we have to implement to make the world believable is huge.

Good to see that SCE is still taking a risk with inovative game ideas.

Fredi

 

[Guden Oden]

100+ strong team?

Guess it was true when they said the days of the small software devs are over on next-gen platforms...

Bet it'll still take them five years to get the title out the door. Jeez. Imagine if they stick half a millennia's worth of man-years into a game and it STILL sucks?

Not saying THIS game will suck of course, I was just speculating. Hehe. Oh, btw... I hear Duke Nukem Forever's approaching four billion man-years.

Edit:
Hm, ok, now that I've had breakfast and all that, time to get serious. 200+ AI characters does sound very intriguing. I think it's time for games to start featuring real AI, instead of the simpletons we've seen so far. Maybe they should implement a system based on needs (food, sleep etc), wants (wine, women and song etc) and orders (what your boss tells you). On top of that there should be basic emotions, and all of these might well conflict with one another.

Think of it... A trash collector might be something like this:

Orders: pick up pieces of trash with his sharp stick, put them in trash bag. When trash bag is full, return to a central site with bag and dump it there, then go back and continue.

Wants: more interested in watching the football game seen on a TV in hifi store's window than pick trash, so he will not be a very effective worker.

Needs: will wander off to eat when he gets hungry. Is also sleepy, so movement at all times is slow, and perception low. Could get himself run over by a car at a street crossing, at which point an ambulance should be called to the scene by other AI characters, crewed by emergency workers who will do their thing driven by their orders, needs and wants etc...

 

[Qroach]

simulating 200+ real-world agents for a real time, single player, story-focused game

Hmm, Perhaps I'm reading this wrong but didn't the PC game Republic do this simulating 1 million AI citizens in thier game? 100 people on a game is way too much if you ask me.

 

[StefanS]

simulating 200+ real-world agents for a real time, single player, story-focused game

Hmm, Perhaps I'm reading this wron but didn't the PC game Republic do this simulating 1 million AI citizens in thier game? 100 people on a game is way too much if you ask me.

I agree, maybe they will develop tools as well...

 

[McFly]

Needs: will wander off to eat when he gets hungry. Is also sleepy, so movement at all times is slow, and perception low. Could get himself run over by a car at a street crossing, at which point an ambulance should be called to the scene by other AI characters, crewed by emergency workers who will do their thing driven by their orders, needs and wants etc...

That's exactly what I expect from future games. As an other example:

You need health packs, but as the game is very realistic, they can't just be found everywhere on the streets, so you have to use your brain to get one. How could you do that? One way would be to steal a car, drive into a passenger, wait till the ambulance comes and steal a health pack from them. An other way would be to ask a passenger if there is an apotheke somewhere near and just buy one there.

I mean there are an incredible huge number of possibilities to get through a game if the AI system works like that. It would be a revolution in gameplay.

Fredi

 

[cybamerc]

100 people is a lot but one has to keep in mind that they will be working on a much more complex architecture and that everything from concept to testing is going to be substantially more complex as well. It's not just graphics that are going to be improved but also physics, ai, sound etc. If you want to make a truly state of the art game next gen you're going to need lots of talented coders in addition a massive amount of designers (again, not just graphics).

This of course is the reason why some companies are arguing in favor of simpler games. Few independent developers will be able to make something of this size.

 

[cybamerc]

There are also examples of current gen games having massive teams. Splinter Cell PS2 had 76 fulltime developers working on it. Granted it was a 5 month project but they already had the basic technology ready and of course a completed game and finished assets to work from.

 

[London Geezer]

I say, if the budget is there, the more people involved in a project, the better for everyone.

 

[cybamerc]

london-boy:

> I say, if the budget is there, the more people involved in a project, the
> better for everyone.

We'll see - Too many cooks....

The Getaway didn't exactly strike me as a well-managed game either.

 

[StefanS]

I say, if the budget is there, the more people involved in a project, the better for everyone.

While "the more, the merrier" can be good, it can also get "too many cooks spoil the broth".
Getting few people to pursue a design is a lot easier than handling a horde of rampaging game programmers etc. Big projects and teams are more likely to get out of control (see the beginnings of Retro). Of course big crowds can also achieve more than few dedicated souls especially in the graphics department...

 

[Guden Oden]

Well, in the "too many cooks" department, just look at the credits list for pretty much any major Nintendo title. You see about a mile of names scroll by, even way back in the 8-bit era.

Are the Japanese simply better at handling discipline (forcing people to commit seppuku if they don't stay in line? ), or is it something else entirely that makes it possible for Nintendo (and undoubtedly other major Japanese devs) to execute well with hordes of both programmers and designers on the same team?

Maybe us westerners are inept at management? What else could it be?

 

[cybamerc]

Well... credits may include names of people not directly related to the production, producers, part time workers etc.

 

[McFly]

Was not FF X a game with nearly 500 team members involved? Or was it a FF before FF X? Hmmm ... can't remember.

Fredi

 

[London Geezer]

Was not FF X a game with nearly 500 team members involved? Or was it a FF before FF X? Hmmm ... can't remember.

Fredi

OI!!
Well i wouldn't be surprised, with the amount of art in any given FF game since FF6... Also you have to think about all the dialogues, the huge amount of text, now also speech... They are quite huge games.

Also i wonder how many were involved in Kingdom Hearts..

 

[StefanS]

Well, in the "too many cooks" department, just look at the credits list for pretty much any major Nintendo title. You see about a mile of names scroll by, even way back in the 8-bit era.

Hell, even Doshin the Giant has relatively huge credits and we all know it was designed and programmed by just 1 guy.

 

[McFly]

Was not FF X a game with nearly 500 team members involved? Or was it a FF before FF X? Hmmm ... can't remember.

Fredi

OI!!
Well i wouldn't be surprised, with the amount of art in any given FF game since FF6... Also you have to think about all the dialogues, the huge amount of text, now also speech... They are quite huge games..

From an interview:

Nobuo Uematsu, composer

Uematsu's favourite - Melodies Of Life - was also released as a single in Japan.
Q: How many tracks did you create for Final Fantasy IX?

A: Around 160, but about 20 of them weren't used, so there should be about 140 in the game.

That's a lot of songs for just one game.

Q: How does having split development sites in Hawaii and Japan affect the outcome of a game?

A: Many of our FFIX staff members come from overseas. Many of them have worked actively in Hollywood. Square has gained a major advantage from working with these highly skilled individuals. Since it would be somewhat difficult for our overseas members to work in Japan, Hawaii was the ideal place for the team to work together.

Looks like they did not get enough talented people from within Japan.

PSM was lucky enough to fire questions at four key members of the 180(!) strong team who worked on FFVIII

I really wonder how big the team was for the later games.

Fredi