OPM's Lair and Factor 5 article

[mckmas8808]

THE ART OF LAIR

We had a chance to see the realtime demo of Lair running up close, and it's easily one of the most impressive displays of visual technology we've seen yet from a next-generation game. Most impressive are the individual beads of water you can see drop and cascade along the scales of the two dragons doing battle in midflight. In fact, even Ken Kutaragi, president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, was shocked to see this particular special effect. You can also pick out muscles, bone, and transparencies in the wings. Actually, the entirety of the dragon models looks spectacular, as it should seeing as how Phil Tippett, the man responsible for designing the dragon featured in the movie Dragonheart, lent his talents to Lair. The models he created for the game were scanned in, allowing the game's artists, sitting in the room pictured here to add multiple layers of detailed textures to the dragons.

But there's more to making a launch game than just being first. It's an opportunity to make a statement as a developer - a statement Factor 5 is more than prepared to make. "The gameplay has to be very intuitive and accessible. Yes, we have a certain emphasis on graphics, but graphics alone won't do it." says Eggebrecht. "Also, you have to find a balance between physics and gameplay, so you need to choose your battles wisely. That's the thing bout launch titles - if you don't pick you battles right, [then you will encounter problems]."

And some extra information about Factor 5.

The cement exterior conveys the sense that there are a bunch of accountants or desk jockeys inside, whittling away at stacks upon stacks of forms and other paperwork. Little would you know that it's quite the opposite on the inside, where a team of nearly 100 people - including programmers, artists, designers, and other talented individuals - is working on one of the most high-profile games for the PlayStation 3 launch: Lair

So looks like we can put this on the PS3 launch title list. I can't wait to see more media of this game.



*thanks to GAF for the article.

 

[Titanio]

Beat me to it!

Silverthorn at PS3forums (http://www.ps3forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=13072) was the original source.

This bit was also interesting:

Ultimately, the decision to become a PS3 developer boiled down to finding the best fit. "It came down to talking to Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, but Sony just [made the most convincing argument]," Eggebrecht says. "I'd love in the future to work on another Star Wars title, [but] working on an original IP is so much more exciting. It was tough finding a publisher, but Sony was totally cool about it."

 

[tema]

Julian loves the power of Cell+RSX! MS will regret rushing Xbo360 launch games when average joe looks at Lair and PDZ.

 

[EndR]

Julian loves the power of Cell+RSX! MS will regret rushing Xbo360 launch games when average joe looks at Lair and PDZ.

The problem is that when PS3 arrives, we will probably have already played games like Oblivion and Gears of War.. so when Lair is released.. people will say "meh" and look forward to Halo3 instead..

or something along those lines...

 

[mckmas8808]

The problem is that when PS3 arrives, we will probably have already played games like Oblivion and Gears of War.. so when Lair is released.. people will say "meh" and look forward to Halo3 instead..

or something along those lines...

Ahhh. NO, that's not going to happen if what we seen will be released. Gears of War and Oblivion look great, but they don't feature Dragons with indiviuals rain droplets swinging of of them.

 

[scooby_dooby]

GOW features individual drops of rain running down characters, tress, splashing in puddles.

ANyways, SPlinter Cell 4 will set the bar long before Lair is released, so if you want to make comparisons use that, and take a looks at those screens, SC4 is amazing. PD0 will be long forgotten by then...

Interesting Lair is confirmed as a launch title, we know 1 of the major cards Sony is holding....I wonder what else they will pull out.

 

[mckmas8808]

Oh hellz yeah I agree Splinter Cell 4 will really show people what next-gen is about. I personally think SC4 looks better than Gears of War, but hey.

 

[scooby_dooby]

Oh hellz yeah I agree Splinter Cell 4 will really show people what next-gen is about. I personally think SC4 looks better than Gears of War, but hey.

SC4 should spank GOW.

Any new screens for Lair? Do we know how the gameplay is going to work?

 

[mckmas8808]

SC4 should spank GOW.

Any new screens for Lair? Do we know how the gameplay is going to work?

Nope that's Sony's ninjas at work. We'll have to wait until the embargo is gone in Feb.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Well, yeah, the gameplay of Lair is a pretty big unknown at the moment. Sure the dragons are pretty...

 

[blakjedi]

"It was tough finding a publisher, but Sony was totally cool about it."

This particular quote and its incipient point stands out most when talking this next gen race (its a race NOT, a war).

First to market
Great technology
Great tools

mean nothing when you can almost guarantee my team:

Great sales
Largest market
Totally cool working relationship

For the things that we have seen that have been true representations of techonolgy art and game making (Heavenly Sword, I-8, and Lair)

The defining difference for all the developers has been that after shopping to all OEM publishers Sony took the chance on them to do something new, different, totally cool and if left to their own devices potentially spectacular.

Sony's publishing group even moreso than their technical arm or PR teams deserve most of the kudos for Playstation success. They make dev teams want to develop for Sony. They took a chance on resident evil, GTA, Jak and daxter even crash bandicoot and now HS and Lair and man is it paying for them.

To wit I wonder how A) Nintendo allowed Factor 5 to disappear from their 1/2nd party dev rolls and B) How did MS who is in dire need of gungho top rate dev teams to push their platform didnt pick up Ninja Theory and Factor 5 from the get go...

MS makes strange decisions....

 

[TurnDragoZeroV2G]

working on an original IP is so much more exciting. It was tough finding a publisher, but Sony was totally cool about it.

I'm glad they're getting to do something exciting instead of feeling they have to do something like RSIII. They mentioned it getting dull working on SW for so long, and it showed through in the foot portions.

Edit:

MS makes strange decisions....

Agreed.

 

[Titanio]

GOW features individual drops of rain running down characters

OT, but can we see that anywhere? I remember seeing a little of the rainy forest footage, but I don't remember seeing that specifically.

 

[scooby_dooby]

To wit I wonder how A) Nintendo allowed Factor 5 to disappear from their 1/2nd party dev rolls and B) How did MS who is in dire need of gungho top rate dev teams to push their platform didnt pick up Ninja Theory and Factor 5 from the get go...

MS makes strange decisions....

MS seems to really have concentrated on experience, and big names. As far as I can tell their main moves have been purchasing Rare, signing David Jones (creator of GTA), and setting up Mistwalker w/ the creator of FF.

Sony does seem to have great foresight in creating and funding IP's, I can't wait to see what the next big blockbusters are gonna be, and what system that's gonna be on. We can talk all day, but what's really gonna decide it is the new franchises.

 

[Hardknock]

To wit I wonder how A) Nintendo allowed Factor 5 to disappear from their 1/2nd party dev rolls and B) How did MS who is in dire need of gungho top rate dev teams to push their platform didnt pick up Ninja Theory and Factor 5 from the get go...

MS makes strange decisions....

Mist Walker, Q entertainment, Phantagram, From Software, Team Ninja, Bungie, Rare, Real Time Worlds, Bethesda, Bioware, Silicon Knights, Monolith and Psuedo Interactive says hi :smile:

MS is taking quite a few risks with unknown IPs next-gen.

 

[Hardknock]

Most impressive are the individual beads of water you can see drop and cascade along the scales of the two dragons doing battle in midflight.

I don't know why, but I always thought you would be fighting hundreds of dragons at a time...

 

[Titanio]

I don't know why, but I always thought you would be fighting hundreds of dragons at a time...

Well, that's a bit of a speculative play mechanic. It sounds like they're talking about the trailer from the PSM and TGS, which focusses mostly on two dragons fighting. They flashed into another scene with many many dragons on screen (though they weren't fighting..).

It's pretty much impossible to tell exactly what the gameplay will be like. They don't seem to have divulged further details in this article either.

 

[fulcizombie]

"It was tough finding a publisher, but Sony was totally cool about it."

This particular quote and its incipient point stands out most when talking this next gen race (its a race NOT, a war).

First to market
Great technology
Great tools

mean nothing when you can almost guarantee my team:

Great sales
Largest market
Totally cool working relationship

For the things that we have seen that have been true representations of techonolgy art and game making (Heavenly Sword, I-8, and Lair)

The defining difference for all the developers has been that after shopping to all OEM publishers Sony took the chance on them to do something new, different, totally cool and if left to their own devices potentially spectacular.

Sony's publishing group even moreso than their technical arm or PR teams deserve most of the kudos for Playstation success. They make dev teams want to develop for Sony. They took a chance on resident evil, GTA, Jak and daxter even crash bandicoot and now HS and Lair and man is it paying for them.

To wit I wonder how A) Nintendo allowed Factor 5 to disappear from their 1/2nd party dev rolls and B) How did MS who is in dire need of gungho top rate dev teams to push their platform didnt pick up Ninja Theory and Factor 5 from the get go...

MS makes strange decisions....

When was factor 5 a nintendo 1/2nd party??When did they make a nintendo-published game??

For Ninja Theory:Look i understand that a NT developer posts in this forum and we all have to be very kind but what motivation would MS have to pick up NT??What is it that makes NT a good developer??They delivered a horrible game last gane for microsoft and that's it.I understand that in Sony's fans' minds any team that works for sony is an amasing one(judging by comments for teams like guerilla,NT ,factor 5 and more) but the truth is that these teams have done nothing worth all this hyupe.In factor 5's case i would say that they are capable of producing games with amasing graphics and very bad gameplay.

Ms has teams like bioware,silicon Knights and Epic working on 2nd party titles so i think that they are O.K on that matter.

Some people don't understand that being hyped for games like killzone2 and whatever is like MS fans being hyped for sequels to Tao Feng and Blinx.It's not MS' fault that anything associated with Sony gets a free pass from the majority of people on internet boards that happen to be sony's fans.

 

[scificube]

Yo, pass the venom!

 

[Bohdy]

<Damage Control>

Factor 5 was second party (ie. exclusive third-party developer) to Nintendo the whole of this gen. I don't think that Nintendo published any of their games, though.

Oh and have you actually played Kung Fu Chaos? Its a fantastic little game.