Cryptic hiring for new project(s)

[Stormwaltz]

Lead Game Designer: "Bonus: Knowledge and/or interest in history and mythology"

Equally interesting: Senior Game Designer

Requirements:
* Shipped at least two console games with strong combat focus
* Design of boss fight(s) on console game

Desired Skills and Pluses:
* Comic book knowledge

http://www.creativeheads.net/jobs.aspx?CompanyID=13994&jsOrigin=12

[Yoru]

Lead Game Designer: "Bonus: Knowledge and/or interest in history and mythology"

I read 'Dave Barry Slept Here' once. Do I qualify? 

[schild]

Console game.

Hm.

[Engels]

"Bonus: Knowledge and/or interest in history and mythology"

Desired Skills:
* Comic book knowledge

Just stop right there. Ditch the project. Blech!

Edit: I should clarifty. You can do history and mythology, or you can do something 'comic book-y', but not both.

[stray]

Console game.

Hm.

Even more interesting:

* Design of boss fight(s) on console game


They're looking to make an actual "game" game. How about that?

[Strazos]

Agreed.

Also, I'm guessing they are talking about Ancient history [Greek/Roman, Ancient Asia or Mesopotamia, possibly early Medieval], even though they did not specify (re: mythology). They really should.

[schild]

I'm going to preempatively blame them for having a broken grind.

Cryptic, whatever you're thinking of making, cut the EXP requirement in half.

I don't care if it's only a design document right now.

Do it.

[stray]

I don't see how they could even have an exp grind while looking for someone who's experienced with console-ish/pattern based boss fights. The latter generally assumes you don't need levels -- or even gear upgrades for that matter.

[schild]

This is an MMOG company. Nothing is impossible.

[stray]

Yeah, but didn't some of the Cryptic team originally come from consoles? Maybe this will be a merging of both console and MMO experience in an even better way than CoH was.

My super-premature theory:

This will be a comic booky God of War clone attempt -- With custom character design.

Story and/or progression will be Single player ala Age of Conan.

Console-ish beat em up combat  - with all the usual trappings of "stages" instead of "levels" and the aforementioned pattern based bosses, etc., etc..

After all that, the online component will be strictly PvP (lessons learned from CoX applied).


Of course, you may be right. And in that case, I'd at least be interested to see how they try to implement conflicting ideas into an actual working game (I wouldn't play that shit though).

[Soln]

what other comic book franchises are there?  SOE has DC, and who has Marvel?  This something manga?

[shiznitz]

I'm going to preempatively blame them for having a broken grind.

Cryptic, whatever you're thinking of making, cut the EXP requirement in half.

I don't care if it's only a design document right now.

Do it.

Fuck that. NO EXP AT ALL.

[damijin]

I'm going to preempatively blame them for having a broken grind.

Cryptic, whatever you're thinking of making, cut the EXP requirement in half.

I don't care if it's only a design document right now.

Do it.

Fuck that. NO EXP AT ALL.

MMO entertainment is initially derived from a sense of wonder and discovery and prolonged by a sense of achievement. Create a new achievement system and the days of EXP will be over! Hurrah!

Reward players for getting jobs and girlfriends IMO.

[Soln]

I'm going to preempatively blame them for having a broken grind.

Cryptic, whatever you're thinking of making, cut the EXP requirement in half.

I don't care if it's only a design document right now.

Do it.

Fuck that. NO EXP AT ALL.

MMO entertainment is initially derived from a sense of wonder and discovery and prolonged by a sense of achievement. Create a new achievement system and the days of EXP will be over! Hurrah!

Reward players for getting jobs and girlfriends IMO.

and/or doing other things like building guilds, player cities, hosting in-game events, making player-scripted quests, making player-scripted helpful legal mods...

[Stormwaltz]

Edit: I should clarifty. You can do history and mythology, or you can do something 'comic book-y', but not both.

Those are from two separate job listings, presumably for two separate projects. One wants history/myth and the other console experience + comic book knowledge.

My first guess was either a port of CoX, or a version 2/upgrade with more reactive combat.

[Engels]

Edit: I should clarifty. You can do history and mythology, or you can do something 'comic book-y', but not both.

Those are from two separate job listings, presumably for two separate projects. One wants history/myth and the other console experience + comic book knowledge.

My first guess was either a port of CoX, or a version 2/upgrade with more reactive combat.

Well, thank god for small favors. I strongly encourage development of either genre. In fact, I think the head of CoX, the dude that has a Classics education, should develop a historical/mythological game of some sort. Look at how successful Titan Quest is, and although that's mythology 'light', its a deep reservoir of human lore to pull from. As far as comic books, well, one need only look at the numbers in CoX to see that its appeal has a smaller audience than perhaps was anticipated. But who says Cryptic can't be niche too?

[Strazos]

I think there's potential for a mythology-heavy game, one where the different deities and religions play a big part in gameplay.

[stray]

CoX isn't niche because of the comic book setting. That's it's best selling point.

[HaemishM]

As far as comic books, well, one need only look at the numbers in CoX to see that its appeal has a smaller audience than perhaps was anticipated.

Actually, most people were predicting numbers a lot less than what COH got and maintains.

[WayAbvPar]

I think there's potential for a mythology-heavy game, one where the different deities and religions play a big part in gameplay.

Definitely. I would guess that with the success of Titan Quest, something like that isn't too unlikely. Maybe a remake of Clash of the Titans will hit Hollywood really make the Greek gods stars again  :-D

[stray]

Success of God of War > Success of Titan Quest

That shit was like a Greatest Hits title in a matter of months.

Just saying....

If we're going to talk about new and great mythology inspired games, I don't want to hear about Titan Quest.

[Strazos]

I'd like to see the numbers of people here who have played God of War vs Titan Quest.

[Rasix]

Can't they both be successes?  (and I'm not just talking sales)

Both (assuming here since I haven't played Titan Quest) play fast and loose with the mythology, but Greek/Roman/Egyptian mythologies are ripe with content and conflict.  A good game is just going to be better taking place in one of these settings.

[stray]

I'd like to see the numbers of people here who have played God of War vs Titan Quest.

Doesn't matter. F13 is not the world. Titan Quest doesn't even make a Top 20 list in PC sales charts.

God of War did well enough to hit the million mark in under a year, get GOTY from just about every rag and group out there, and already have it's movie rights bought up a major film studio. Titan Quest is OK, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't really compare.

[Strazos]

Small-ish PC game vs Big-hype Big-release Console game...the comparison is not really a fair one.

[stray]

It wasn't a big hype, big release game in console terms. It was a sleeper. No more hype or expectations than, say, Ico (which also surprised people in the same way).

I'm not sure where fairness came into the equation either. I'm just talking about which one of these games is the bigger, mythology inspired success -- and the one that's going to be (or rather, should be) looked at more for inspiration.

[schild]

God of War had less paid-for hype than Titan Quest. In fact, it had almost none. My EB back home only got like 3 demos in. I had to get one direct from Sony.

[Velorath]

As far as comic books, well, one need only look at the numbers in CoX to see that its appeal has a smaller audience than perhaps was anticipated. But who says Cryptic can't be niche too?

The numbers for CoX are pretty good considering it didn't have a licensed world and came from a pretty much unknown development team.  If it weren't for the horrible grind and the lack of much else to do other than combat the numbers probably would be even better.  And for the record you can mix History/Mythology and comic books even though as it was pointed out these are for different games.  There are plently of decent comics that are examples of that.

And my bet for the comic book console game would be an offline action game taking place in the CoH world as a way to build up the franchise.

[Mi_Tes]

I would love a history/mythology based game.  Reminds me of Mythica, the game MS cluelessly dropped for Vanguard.   

[Strazos]

I think at this point I'd like to see MS drop Vanguard out of spite. If any other MMO tanks this year, I hope Vanguard is it.

[stray]

I think at this point I'd like to see MS drop Vanguard out of spite. If any other MMO tanks this year, I hope Vanguard is it.

http://www.sigilgames.com/sonypressrelease.html

[Trippy]

I think there's potential for a mythology-heavy game, one where the different deities and religions play a big part in gameplay.

You mean like Gods & Heroes?

[Margalis]

The guy who designed the combat system for God of War is a Street Fighter player.

Edit: Just throwing that out there. It's kind of funny because people go apeshit over the fighting in God of War and its just basic knowledge from a guy I always knew as an old school E. Honda player. I think the lesson there is if you want a good fighting system find somebody who understands and appreciates an existing one.

[Margalis]

As far as comic books, well, one need only look at the numbers in CoX to see that its appeal has a smaller audience than perhaps was anticipated.

I think that's a very poor analysis. First, CoX is not based on any existing comic-book franchise. Second, CoX is not an amazing game. The sample size is way too small to say one way or another. That's like saying Horizons is proof that there is little appeal in a fantasy game.

[Engels]

As far as comic books, well, one need only look at the numbers in CoX to see that its appeal has a smaller audience than perhaps was anticipated.

I think that's a very poor analysis. First, CoX is not based on any existing comic-book franchise. Second, CoX is not an amazing game. The sample size is way too small to say one way or another. That's like saying Horizons is proof that there is little appeal in a fantasy game.

I don't know, I think CoX is a very well developed game by industry standards. Comparing it to Horizons is unfair, since that game was largely unplayable at release and had many many issues with it, whereas CoH was always playable. I don't like comics, and I played CoX for a good long time. I finally got bored with it, whereas my girlfriend, who was raised on comics (I wasn't) plays CoV everyday. I know, anecdotal personal experience doesn't make it a statistical truth, but there's a definate sense that she's stuck to it because the genre thrills her, whereas it leaves me indifferent.
 
As to its lack of popularity being ascribed to it not being part of a pre-existing franchise, neither is WoW, other than the original RTS, but that's not exactly in the same category as an entire media like comics. A MMO based on a particular comic, such as Batman or Spiderman, is doomed to failure since by its very nature it precludes the ability for thousands of players having a relavant role. CoX comes as close as any attempt at the game can to allowing the creation of your own superhero. You can make an arguement that an MMO could be created around the mythos of the Xmen, where every player gets to be his own kind of mutant, but in the end you just end up with CoX, with an Xmen backstory.

I think the genre has a limited appeal simply because if everyone is a superhero as comics describe them, the romance of the small group or lone individual that's radically different from everyone else and hence can save humanity breaks down into absurdity. Only the most die hard fans of the genre can retain the sense of immersion necessary to maintain that particular literary lie. Most of us just see people in spandex casting spells.