Star Wars Battlefront III : Free Radical Design version
- Thread starter Borman
- Start date
Schrödinger's cat
Banned
2007 sounds about right. Some environmental work had been done, an early milestone or two. Some character concepts for the dark/light characters. BF3 being canned wasn't a huge surprise, the rumblings about LA's view on its development were around a while before they became a disappointing reality.
Yes, FRD were looking for alternative projects and more financing. TS4 was the ideal way to go and concept art and planning was underway. I loved the character concept art, lots of off the wall stuff, very inventive. I think there was talk of a level to be set in a crate factory - as a nod to FPS's fondness for crates littering levels all the time.
TS4 was being pitched to publishers heavily. From what I gather (and I stress that publisher communications/negotiations was not something I was directly involved in) publishers weren't especially interested. Whilst the series had a following and fondness this didn't necessarily equate to lots of sales. Historically, I don't think any of the TS games were massive moneyspinners in spite of their reception. TS4, at the time, didn't look like it was going to get the green light. I have no idea as to its current status. I'd love to see it happen.
FRD were also looking to do smaller projects. WiiWare, for example - Frontier's success with Lost Winds turning a number of heads at the time. The company invited a 2-page game pitch from any staff that cared to submit. This would be reviewed by the design heads and directors and then shortlisted for expansion. In the final weeks some concepting was being put together for some of these pitches. I was involved in pre-vis for a dimension/gravity shifting game (the upcoming Inversion reminds me of some of the ideas that were being considered) and another small group were doing similar work on an idea centred around a huge war robot (size of a skyscraper type stuff). Elsewhere a browser-based MMO framework was months into development with the intent to launch a kid-friendly MMO (Club Penguin being cited as a success story for this sort of thing).
Including ToR, Battlefront 2.
Schrödinger's cat;36760654 said:
That's a bit sad as the leaked videos look pretty fine. Was the title that far behind the schedule? Was anything done for the Wii port? How much longer would've the title needed?
That's what most probably expected. While fans liked the games, especially the third title was not too successful with EA's very limited marketing.
Pumpkin Beach?
Thanks for sharing these insights. Good to see that you found a new job after the closure.
Schrödinger's cat
Banned
I don't recall it being especially far behind schedule, but the incremental improvements in each deliverable were not garnering the same level of satisfaction from the publisher that earlier deliverables had.
The Wii version was standing up pretty well on its own. At this time the work was keeping parity with the PC/PS3/360 development and constantly prototyping control methods. The delta from the main project's development was starting to be tracked. It was too early to say what limitations the hardware may have imposed on the scope of the original. I'm pretty certain the VBF remained intact.
Indeed. I picked up some history of the game - including some cut scenes and the "shit-stick" weapon in TS3's train level. EA are an industry within the industry - so you're pushing to have EA push your title above other EA titles due to be marketed in the same period.
Looks about right!Pumpkin Beach?
No problem. FRD was a great place to work and there was no end of talent and dedication under that roof.
I'd maybe even pay more than that.
Had a request for some more video, of Coruscant, Leia, and Padme. Knocked them all out quick : http://ptoponline.com/?p=78
Seventy_X_Seven
Member
It's a bit harder to watch now that we don't even have a rumored developer anymore for a new version.
Spark Unlimited was actively trolling us too,
https://twitter.com/#!/sparkunlimited/status/190595493661900800
Spark Unlimited was actively trolling us too,
https://twitter.com/#!/sparkunlimited/status/190595493661900800
Just wondering, is it much fun to play such an early version?
Vigilant Walrus
Member
Schrödinger's cat;36737266 said:
This shit sounds like such a fucking bad idea that I have no idea that its true. ugh. why don't these guys have any idea about what is needed? seriously.
EA is the same. The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, was a battlefront varient set in Middle-Earth with all kinds of crazy shitty gimmicks.
They are focusing on the wrong things. All you need is a solid engine, game balance and a few fundamental mechanics that work. almost no online games have this. almost nothing has a tight netcode. that is why 50.000 people are still playing counter-strike 1.6 right now on steam!
You never heard anything about a new Jedi Knight did you? That's the franchise I want to see return. As far as Star Wars goes (and Lucas Arts!) they can all rot. As a publisher they have run themselves into a ditch... only SEGA and Atari compares in how the mighty can fall. LA were so great eons ago!! they were so good! How a company can fail themselves so hard is incredible.
Schrödinger's cat
Banned
I heard worse. There was a point where a variant of trooper called the Rainbow Trooper was proposed by someone quite high up on the LucasArts side. I don't feel the need to expand on that, the name says it all.
I would pay $20. Heck, I paid that much for the PSP version which is probably less polished.
Another time, another planet:
http://betagames.org/board/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=418
http://betagames.org/board/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=418
i'm just now seeing more of this footage...man would have loved to see what FR could've finished with.
That being said we hear slant six's name and some hate that...then we hear sparks unlimited and folks hate that idea even more.....so how about LightBox Interactive? Makers of Starhawk and more importantly Warhawk. I believe they are independant, although i don't know if they have an exclusive contract with Sony for more than one game.
Their games are fun, look great and are smooth...although there are some ealry glitches, usually the end product seem polished.
That being said we hear slant six's name and some hate that...then we hear sparks unlimited and folks hate that idea even more.....so how about LightBox Interactive? Makers of Starhawk and more importantly Warhawk. I believe they are independant, although i don't know if they have an exclusive contract with Sony for more than one game.
Their games are fun, look great and are smooth...although there are some ealry glitches, usually the end product seem polished.
B_Rik_Schitthaus
Banned
Schrödinger's cat;36912939 said:
He's special ability is to trap the enemy is side of himself?
Hey everyone, I've been posting a ton of Battlefront III videos since this original post, but just tonight I posted over 1 hour of new footage of the game. Always willing to hear any former employee's opinions, just send me a PM!
http://ptoponline.com/?p=301
http://ptoponline.com/?p=301
It's what I am good at.
be honest....do you have the game? are you playing it giggling like alittle school knowing we can't play???
edit- wait, you do have the game.
I do. And no, it is mostly frustration since it is incredibly early.
Give us the game you bastard! D:
I can't. The agreement is to cover the game, nothing more.
Well at least I tried.
Even if I could leak this one, I dont think I would, it would do more harm than good. It just isn't ready for public consumption at all, let alone people who don't understand what it is.
undrtakr900
Member
Remember in the demo if you rolled/dodged in first-person-view you entire screen would rotate also lol
Rubbish King
The gift that keeps on giving
one day...... ONE DAY IT'LL HAPPEN!
Syph Medwes
Member
Dude, wtf, stop screwing with us!
I bought LotR: Conquest again the other day to at least get that Battlefront feel on 7th gen consoles.
Why don't they just release Battlefront 1&2 HD or something? A 3rd iteration would be nice but I'd still play that.
I bought LotR: Conquest again the other day to at least get that Battlefront feel on 7th gen consoles.
Why don't they just release Battlefront 1&2 HD or something? A 3rd iteration would be nice but I'd still play that.
CamHostage
Member
Thanks, Borman. I'm not a huge fan of the Battlefront franchise (I don't feel it ever nailed that Battlefield butter-zone where the shooting was compelling and the vehicles were fun to drive or at least technical and interesting and the game felt like a total package rather than a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none) but I'm very interested in the development history of this project. Over the course of this clip you caught a lot of what I considered notable improvements towards the kind of game I was hoping Battlefront would have eventually become, so that was cool to see.
The land-to-space traversal still looks like a marketing requirement rather than good game design, though ("hey kids, now you can go all the way into space all in the same battle!,") I don't think they ever really figured out what to do with all that empty air between the map and the ships and they also had little hope of masking the gameplay map from the empty ground that would form the rest of the planet (always ends up looking like a spitball stuck on a balloon, everywhere but the gameplay zone is empty void, even if they added in unreacheable geometry I'm still not sure they'd have enough horsepower to avoid the Scooby-Doo effect of having the real map stick out like a sore thumb?) I like that the capital ships determine the balance of the battle (and even though I made fun of it, it still left me pouty to see it copped out in a cutscene transition on the PSP game by Rebellion) but in general I don't feel comfortable they could have found a way to make this scope work while still keeping a reigned-in and exciting and competitive battle.
For both Battlefront and TimeSplitters, I would love to see just the multiplayer brought back as an ala carte download. (Well, and the mapmaker for TS.) I realize there were charms about the single-player aspects of each game, but the online competition seems to be what these games could offer best at a low development effort versus the popularity turnout behind each game.
The land-to-space traversal still looks like a marketing requirement rather than good game design, though ("hey kids, now you can go all the way into space all in the same battle!,") I don't think they ever really figured out what to do with all that empty air between the map and the ships and they also had little hope of masking the gameplay map from the empty ground that would form the rest of the planet (always ends up looking like a spitball stuck on a balloon, everywhere but the gameplay zone is empty void, even if they added in unreacheable geometry I'm still not sure they'd have enough horsepower to avoid the Scooby-Doo effect of having the real map stick out like a sore thumb?) I like that the capital ships determine the balance of the battle (and even though I made fun of it, it still left me pouty to see it copped out in a cutscene transition on the PSP game by Rebellion) but in general I don't feel comfortable they could have found a way to make this scope work while still keeping a reigned-in and exciting and competitive battle.
For both Battlefront and TimeSplitters, I would love to see just the multiplayer brought back as an ala carte download. (Well, and the mapmaker for TS.) I realize there were charms about the single-player aspects of each game, but the online competition seems to be what these games could offer best at a low development effort versus the popularity turnout behind each game.