The Game's Development Story Discussion

[ikarop]

Why didn't Sega just use a bigger developer in the first place if GBX was too busy?

It's not that much about them being busy but about making a game based on such a big franchise. It's always a delicate and tricky process.

[Salt The Fries]

Aliens: Colonial Marines has always been dumped for something else, first AVP, then Duke Nukem, then Borderlands 2...And the game was announced in December, 2006 for CHRIST SAKE!!!


I WILL RIP THEIR ******* THROATS OFF!!!

[Shai`tan]

As I read these from early interviews, I just had to save them for later posterity. Give em a read......

""Aliens: Colonial Marines is a process of creativity and
invention and those don't necessarily follow the structure of
an assembly line."

"While setting clear goals, deadlines and predictions is
helpful, they are often subjective. We don't want to sacrifice
the creative process just for the sake of following a blue
print. We prefer to have the creative discovery shape that blue
print because our goal is to make a great game, and we are
prioritizing this goal over the previously targeted date."

"Randy Pitchford bounded on to the stage to say: "This is the sequel to
Aliens that we've all been waiting for. It's the game I've been
wanting to play since I saw that film so many years ago."

"But most of all, Gearbox has contemplated 25 years of developers'
collective failure to make a faithful Aliens follow-up and been
galvanised into creating a game that is truly worthy of the badge."

" I commended the MP designers that were at hand on their
decision to keep the aliens' perspective in third-person
because players would eventually sucuumb to vertigo if it was
in first-person.

One of the female MP level designers commented
that it was a decision born from one of the failures of
Rebellion's most recent Aliens vs. Predator game. Players felt
disoriented anytime they would climb on a wall or the ceiling,
so they wanted to correct that in Gearbox's iteration of the
Aliens franchise."

   Read into this what you will. ;p

[MR EL1M1NATOR]

If that is true about getting a different developer before 2012, that is interesting, as I thought the game looked it's most promising with the 2011 E3 Demo Walkthrough. So that wouldn't have been Gearbox? Then they take it back and instead of making it better, make it worse!

That being said, the story always sounded a bit ridiculous, but it looks like they changed that a lot two, as Randy Pitchford said that the demo walkthrough took place in Act 2 of the game but of what I have seen, none of that stuff happens.

[ikarop]

If that is true about getting a different developer before 2012, that is interesting, as I thought the game looked it's most promising with the 2011 E3 Demo Walkthrough. So that wouldn't have been Gearbox?

The game has always been theirs. It wouldn't be respectful to say otherwise just because they had outsourcing partners. It's just the focus that varied depending on what was a priority at the moment.

As for the E3 demo, it was a cinematic experience put together by many people including GBX.

[jahickson]

you are right ikarop, that is exactly the jist happened...

but things that wont be public is Time Gate changed many systems (including ai and pathfinding), textures, meshes, and particles, so that when GBX got the game back from Time Gate after more or less a year, it was a big mess to try and salvage enough to finish the game and make it something worth playing.

and no its not uncommon for material to be handed off to a outsourcing company, but to outsource the entire game just because you needed to finish work on BL2 seems counter productive to me... Should have just shelved it until they were ready to go back to it.

nothing worse than having a project go through multiple hands and phases were the direction can often shift dramatically from the original goal...

however, moreso than all this Time Gate stuff, I think one thing that this game is hindered by is the atrocious story and dialogue... I don't remember when it was that aliens franchise was ever "bro fisting" dialogue... The dialogue should add to the game not detract in every instance .. I don't need to hear the CM's say "Oorah to Ashes" every other cut scene...

it all makes a little clearer why it took so long up until recently to get a proper "story" trailer... most of what has been demoed and shown most often was the multiplayer... 

i'm a rare breed but I don't play games for the sole purpose of multiplayer... I would rather have a strong single player campaign over any form of multiplayer any day of the week, but thats just me

[ikarop]

Both studios worked closely so I'm not sure about any "salvaging".

it all makes a little clearer why it took so long up until recently to get a proper "story" trailer... most of what has been demoed and shown most often was the multiplayer... 

That's just marketing. AvP's story trailer was released around the same time back in 2010.

[jahickson]

right but what I am saying is, the quality of the 2012-2013 story trailer really foreshadowed a lot of the horrible dialogue, gameplay elements that we are seeing this weekend with early copies...

when I saw the latest story trailer my excitement diminished whole heartedly... They would have been better off just not releasing it.

[ikarop]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/02/11/the-future-according-to-randy-pitchford

[Shai`tan]

Pitchford is a B/S artist.  No doubt about it.

[Paladinrja]

Anyone know what exact role Timegate studios played in this?

[VonPelz]

Anyone know what exact role Timegate studios played in this?

Former Gearbox dev says Aliens: Colonial Marines development was a trainwreck, primary dev done by TimeGate http://gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=196001

That article seems to shed some light on that. Though, coming from a former GBX dev it should be taken with a grain of salt.
Anyway, if what that guy says is true, wow. GBX totally lost the ball on this one, giving most of the development to a mediocre developer.

[ikarop]

Anyone know what exact role Timegate studios played in this?

They helped with the overall game. I've seen mentions to both SP and MP.

[jahickson]

Well, that again proves what I was saying a few days ago...

Yes, Time Gate did "the game" for about a year... More Single Player than anything...

Little tidbit... Sega was not made aware of this until GBX got the game back from them this past year... (GBX was too busy with BL2, DNF, and sending few people from the Aliens Team to work on Furious 4... which is another game that internally was turning out very bad as well from what I hear)

From my sources, by the time GBX got the game back from Time Gate the game was changed dramatically... whole integral systems were rewritten, new (but bad) art was put in the game, and GBX was left to finish a product that should have never seen the light of day... Alot, of the game in the end was rushed and a product of a like I said before-- a game that went through the hands of many developers and was scrapped and restarted over three times...

But again, one thing that still irks me about the game has nothing to do with Time Gate or the other companies... It has to do with the horrible writing and dialogue in the Single Player game... The writers should be fired or atleast asked to step down.... After 7 years (!!!) this is the story and dialogue we get??

[Valaquen]

Anyone know what exact role Timegate studios played in this?

They helped with the overall game. I've seen mentions to both SP and MP.

IGN reported and quoted Pitchford, saying:

Houston-based TimeGate Studios, meanwhile, worked on "probably about 20 or 25 percent of the total time," with Pitchford noting that "if you take preproduction out of it, their effort's probably equivalent to ours.

More: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/02/11/the-future-according-to-randy-pitchford