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[MrRibeye]

3D Realms in 1996 who released Duke Nukem 3D that year.

Photo of the founders of Red Storm Entertainment in 1996 who would two years later give us the first Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six game on the original PlayStation 1.

BioWare during Baldur's Gate development, circa 1997.

Group shot of most of the Blizzard North team, circa 1997 a year after the release of the first Diablo game.

The Jedi Knight (LucasArts, 1997) design team.

The Half-Life team around 1998, from the Sierra Studios E3 1998 Press Kit.

Team Silent in 1998 before incorporating the main development team of Konami and releasing Silent Hill 1 a year later.

Neversoft in 1998, the team who brought us Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.

Rockstar Games circa 2001, the team behind GTA 3.

Remedy team on the day they had finished working on Max Payne (15 July 2001):

 

[tusharngf]

small games small teams small budget !! good old days

 

[DirtyBast8rd]

Fake, I don't see any blue haired whales.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

 

[Boralf]

Fake, I don't see any blue haired whales.

 

[HL3.exe]

small games small teams small budget !! good old days

It really insane to realize the Max Payne 1 for example had a 3 million budget development cost.

Just 4 years later Half-Life 2 already had a development cost of 40 million, and a team of 82 people.

 

[jufonuk]

Without them I don't think PC gaming would be where it is now.

Also no CoD.

 

[dreamstation]

Some of the best games ever made are done with smaller budgets and smaller teams.

 

[Red5]

Awesome talented people, they made my childhood great.

 

[MrRibeye]

Comparison between the Morrowind team:

and the Skyrim team:

 

[N0S]

 

[winjer]

Back when talent was the main requirement and not political identity.

 

[tommib]

This could've been a nice thread. The dream is over now.

 

[Red5]

I don't think you can fit all the people who worked on a single AC game in one single photo even. I still play Duke 3D and Doom till this day but most of the AC games are one and done. Really puts into perspective that games have become too bloated. I would take Baldur's Gate 2 over any AC game these days.

 

[ChoosableOne]

MW 3 dev team

 

[The_Observer]

Back when games were made by passionate people and before corporations f'd up everything and filled dev teams with brainless political activists

 

[Kurotri]

What a coincidence of a thread, I just saw this while browsing twitter:


Also since Assassin's Creed is so hot right now, here's a picture of the original dev team that made AC1:

 

[mansoor1980]

core design

 

[jufonuk]

 

[Avid Reading Horse]

^Bit of a me too situation in them pics, Lara should sue.

 

[jufonuk]

I'm sure the super Mario bros and super Metroid teams were small also.

Same with a lot of 16bit games.

On wiki it says Ikaruga was developed by a small team too.

 

[kruis]

Here's a photo of the full development team of the classic C64 game Paradroid.

 

[Doczu]

I see a pattern on those dev pics from almost 30 years ago...

 

[YOU PC BRO?!]

We didn't realise how good we had it…

 

[Windle Poons]

Bullfrog

Bitmap Brothers

Sensible Software

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

I see a pattern on those dev pics from almost 30 years ago...

I yelled "Yes, man!", these devs are all wearing shoes. Think about that, how wierd this is. In a dev team.

 

[RJMacready73]

Christ lads you had to go and bring 2024 identity politics into 80/90's pictures FFS, can't you just enjoy the snapshot back to simpler times when we where all kids loving the games these guys where making

 

[hemo memo]

No blue hair in sight. Beautiful.

 

[mansoor1980]

Christ lads you had to go and bring 2024 identity politics into 80/90's pictures FFS, can't you just enjoy the snapshot back to simpler times when we where all kids loving the games these guys where making

 

[Alx]

Also since Assassin's Creed is so hot right now, here's a picture of the original dev team that made AC1:

I was hoping someone would post the picture for that game... For the later AC games the ending credits would roll for half an hour listing all the members of the team.

 

[Laptop1991]

All great DEV teams, wish they were still around today

 

[Dr. Suchong]

Here's a photo of the full development team of the classic C64 game Paradroid.

I wish I was smart enough to have been a bedroom coder back in the day.
I didn't even know how to do pokes lol

 

[Windle Poons]

Matthew Smith

 

[Dr. Suchong]

Bullfrog

Bitmap Brothers

Sensible Software

Crunch obviously getting to Sensible.
One of them is pointing a gun at his own head.
Pete rocking the double denim... Brave...

 

[Dr.Morris79]

I wish I was smart enough to have been a bedroom coder back in the day.
I didn't even know how to do pokes lol

There was always little helpers..

I loved this beast.

 

[digdug2]

The Secret of Monkey Island dev team and other LucasArts employees in 1990.

 

[Gaelyon]

All those teams are small and in one location. It's the equivalent of a small indie team of today. Video games have industrialized to hundreds/thousands of devs across several countries working on many shifts with support studios.

 

[jufonuk]

Matthew Smith

And

 

[Majormaxxx]

now do ubisoft lolololo

 

[tusharngf]

Without them we briny think PC gaming would be where it is now.

Also no CoD.

their ID engine is the base for cod engine. I feel somehow they made the base engine.

 

[Windle Poons]

And

Or of course it just does this to you...

 

[Randall365]

I guess dev teams have to have increased a bit, but there is a lesson there in the creative element - the fewer the people involved in the creative element, the better for the end product.

More games, better choice and let the good ones shine - that is what we need, rather than fewer massive releases that try to pander to absolutely everyone - end up costing a fortune - and fall flat in their faces, resulting in huge layoffs.

A good example is Jedi Survivor costing $300million to produce and then God of War Ragnarok $200million, and then Stellar Blade $50million. Can anyone really tell those games cost multiple times more to make?

 

[TheAtomicPile]

What a coincidence of a thread, I just saw this while browsing twitter:


Also since Assassin's Creed is so hot right now, here's a picture of the original dev team that made AC1:

I like that they told all the non-Jade swine to wear dark, muted colors and get as far back as possible so that you can see Jade better.

 

[Rocco Schiavone]

The good old days when men still knew they were men and women still knew they were women. (Already mentioned no blue hair)

 

[Windle Poons]

No blue hair in sight. Beautiful.

Distinct lack of arm sleeve tattoos too.

And half-shaved heads.

And dungarees / doc martin combos

And nose rings...

 

[Kurotri]

I like that they told all the non-Jade swine to wear dark, muted colors and get as far back as possible so that you can see Jade better.

It gets even funnier when you consider that the actual creator of AC is just hanging out far back to the left (the guy with the glasses and green shirt)

 

[Sophist]

Orange Box Midnight Release Party

Release Party for Valve's "Orange Box"

www.flickr.com

 

[willothedog]

Jeff Minter

 

[digdug2]

I guess dev teams have to have increased a bit, but there is a lesson there in the creative element - the fewer the people involved in the creative element, the better for the end product.

More games, better choice and let the good ones shine - that is what we need, rather than fewer massive releases that try to pander to absolutely everyone - end up costing a fortune - and fall flat in their faces, resulting in huge layoffs.

A good example is Jedi Survivor costing $300million to produce and then God of War Ragnarok $200million, and then Stellar Blade $50million. Can anyone really tell those games cost multiple times more to make?

The craziest thing to me is that the $300 million game was the one that was absolutely rife with technical issues upon release. You'd figure that a really good QA/QC team would be included in that budget.

 

[Sophist]

from the official Japanese Super Mario World guidebook.

Lef to right:

• Hideki Konno
• Toshihiko Nakago
• Shigeru Miyamoto
• Takashi Tezuka
• Koji Kondo

Nintendo Official Guide Book - Super Mario World : Nintendo : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Super Mario bros.4 (Wonder Life Special Nintendo Official Guide Book) Scanned by Scanbro.

archive.org