I wanted to write a quick post about two trailers I came across:
The first one is from a user named “JimPlaysGames”. This for his let’s play series which he will be concluding. I like how he crops the user interface of the game to give the impression that everything is a cinematic. His voiceover is very nice and the editing is well done. From watching this trailer, it made me realize that of all the details TFB put into SC2, they even included smaller details such as stars expanding and objects on a planet’s surface blinking to show that it is active and attracts the player’s attention.
Epic Project 6014 Update!
This is a trailer of a recent update to Project 6014 that is also epic and shows off its HD graphics, animations and user-created ships in the melee mode. It plays a remix of the intro theme I’ve never heard before. I really need more time in my life to play this. It’s really awesome to look at and they even included HD fonts. Project 6014 is composed of talented and dedicated fans in the Star Control community. They even created a hi-res starmap for players to download. After begging for an HD-remake of SC2 for many years and trying to wrap our brains around the legal status of Star Control, it’s incredibly awesome to see that the 6014 team not only remade everything in HD, but included a new story for players to sink their teeth into. I highly recommend checking this out and I hope the news continues spreading around. Please check this out. This is a must for any Star Control fan! It may even trigger more fan-mods, which became a legacy for games such as Quake, Half-Life and Unreal.
Thanks, dczanik for reminding me about this. This is a huge step towards keeping Star Control in the spotlight longer.
“This is kind of like Intergalactic Street Fighter II”
- Bithead1000
I came across this review on YouTube by Bithead1000. From the video, I gather that he has played this game before the DOS version. This version tries to make use of the Sega Genesis hardware, despite fact that it was inferior to PC hardware at the time. Because of this, the gameplay was slower and the audio was a lower quality. He describes the music in this version as something reminiscent of 80s horror movies.
For those who don’t know, Accolade created the label, Ballistic, to publish a handful of unlicensed games for the Genesis. This included Star Control, which was branded as “the first 12 megabit game”. These unlicensed games resulted in a lawsuit between Sega and Accolade, which Accolade won.
Here, Bithead1000 plays through the melee mode, “the meat and potatoes of this game”. I like how he chooses ships at random and learns how to utilize each ship on the spot. It actually reminded me of how I learned the game when I first played it. By selecting a ship and pressing a button to load that ship’s “starship databank”. It’s nice to know what to call the ship and all of its components. Of course, the best to learn to play is to choose each ship, play around with it, and develop a strategy.
Another thing I like in this video is how he describes the ships. It’s not a simple fact that some ships have stronger weapons than others; ships can vary in speed, primary attack, secondary function which isn’t always a weapon, etc. It makes it easier for players to choose a favorite ship and even select a certain order of ships to play against an opponent’s order or ships.
Like many games, not only is it fun to play, it’s also fun to watch someone else play. There is something to learn from losing such as better evasion and what ship to choose next in the event of a imminent defeat.
Thanks Bithead1000 for making this video. It brings back memories of my first experience with Star Control, though it happened a very long time ago.
While I do not regularly keep track of celebrity news, a certain event has caught my attention: Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve bash a Times Square in New York City. This event was televised. Please keep in mind, I did not watch this event when it was first broadcasted. For those who do not know who Dick Clark is, he a very popular television personality who owns his own company, Dick Clark Productions. He is also known for his youthful appearance, even at his current age of 82.
There were various celebrities who appeared on these shows. Justin Bieber also performed in the New Year bash, though I am not a fan of his music. The reason why I am mentioning him is because after his performance, he had a private party with his girlfriend, Selena Gomez, friends, family and other people from the Island Def Jam record label, which was sponsored by Activision! He and his guests played Skylanders and other Activision-produced games.
Now why is this worth mentioning? First of all, this news is spreading around quickly due to Bieber’s popularity. With the popularity of New Year’s Eve countdowns, Activision easily reached out to millions of people watching. It reinforces the fact that Skylanders will become a big franchise that will have a marketing campaign as strong as Call of Duty. With the strong ratings for a children’s game, high sales and celebrity endorsement, this product easily stands out in both the video game and toy markets. Pokémon will finally face direct competition from a powerful competitor similar to the competition between Call of Duty MW3 and Battlefield 3, where both games have achieved high sales and critical acclaim.
The current layout of the Toys for Bob website, there is no longer a news section. We may not be seeing new updates from Alex Ness anymore , but we know they are working hard on another secret unannounced project.
Should I worry about SOPA?
I am aware of SOPA, the “Stop Online Piracy Act”. In summary, the purpose of SOPA is to block any websites accused of breaking the law from being visited by US internet users, receiving US funding, ad revenue, etc. However, the way the law is written and the nature of the internet, this will affect the entire world. Essentially, any site under SOPA can be blocked or removed without contacting the site owner. This blog is hosted on GoDaddy, a company that supports SOPA. I am prepared to migrate this site to another host if I need to; I have prior experience with migrating WordPress blogs so this is not hard for me to do.
Conclusion
I would like to wish everyone a happy new year. I hope Skylander’s success brings TFB closer to more projects for them to have greater creative control over. I believe this shows how strong marketing campaigns and taking calculated risks by allowing TFB to experiment with “toys with brains” can lead to a successful game. I’m still keeping my eye on SOPA and preparing a plan should it be approved and I need to migrate to another host.
I got a message from Zenzmurfy (aka Mike Ling) about two videos he posted on YouTube, showing off some new work-in-progress animations he has made very recently.
The fly-by shots of the ships is very reminiscent of Star Trek. Back then, to give the appearance of a ship flying through space, effects artists would have a detailed model ship in front of a blue screen and the camera would move over the ship to give the impression it is cruising through space.
Really awesome stuff. Thank you Mike for sharing these videos.
Out of all the things Star Control 2 is known for, the use of unique fonts to represent each race to reflect their attitude is something that is not mentioned as much as the game’s rich dialog and space combat gameplay.
The only other game that I know of that uses a unique font to represent a character is The Darkness, by Starbreeze Studios. It uses a twisted subtitle font to represent the demon that communicates to the player throughout the game.
Out of curiosity, I e-mailed a few major movie producers regarding the possibility of any movies using different subtitle fonts similar to the way SC2 does. I received a reply from Fox and Universal that they are not aware of any movies that uses different fonts in its subtitles to represent different characters. After, it may be distracting to people who are following along with the movie.
Then again, SC2 never had any speech when it first came out for PC. The fonts really did a nice job at making it clear that these humans are not the humanoid type characters that we see in Star Trek. Imagining the sound of their voices became much easier. When the 3DO version was released, the fonts were removed because there was actual speech. Since TFB released the source code for the 3DO version, The Ur-Quan Masters re-release was born, which combined the voices in addition to the fonts.
I even watched a few public domain silent films. In general, the only time different fonts are used is when the story is being explained to the viewer such as the introduction or to indicate whenever a character is speaking. The font does not necessarily represent the character in this case.
I e-mailed Paul Reiche about his experience during the font process of Star Control 2. Here is what he had to say:
I’ve always been entranced by different letter shapes. As with almost everything good, bad or freaky, my font fetish stems from strange childhood experiences. My first memory of actually noticing the use of lettering styles was in ‘Pogo Possum’, a long-running, nationally syndicated comic about a possum, alligator and their other swamp friends. Their conversations ranged from the innocent to anti-war politics to dark and/or incomprehensible (see examples below.)
Next comes my Larry Niven paperbacks (purchased in my pre-teen years…) which featured the very compelling OCR styling.
Then, when my high school buddies and I started publishing our own RPG books, we spent a LONG time poring through the Letraset catalog to pick out the font for the cover of The Necromican, a book of new magic spells. Gothic rules!… but is somewhat unreadable, so we changed to the somewhat more readable ‘Printers Gothic’ after the first print run…
So, when Fred and I started realizing how important text was going to be in Star Control, we decided to create our own font system, complete with a special editor. Making those fonts were some of the happiest, most obsessive-compulsive days in my life. Not only did we have multiple, proportionally-spaced fonts, but I think we were the first game to have kerning – minute pixel adjustments to letter spacing based on specific letter combinations. For example, when combining L and T, the upper left corner of the T can fit into the blank space in the upper right of the L. I bet almost no one actually realized we were doing this, but to me it made all the difference in the world.
I gotta go, but thanks for letting be babble about one of my favorite subjects!
- Paul
With the HD art inspired by UQM, I came across a thread on SCDB about finding fonts that stand out and represent each race just like it did in the original game. Choosing the right font can be complicated and there are so many to choose from, not all of them necessarily being “free”. Did you know that when the PlayStation 3 was first released, the logo on the top used the Spider-Man 3 font? When fonts are used in a specific manor, it really stands out. For example, I’ve seen the movies The Life Aquatic, The Royal Tenenbaums and Fantastic Mr. Fox. All three movies are directed by Wes Anderson and the fonts used throughout the film and posters are of a specific style.
Conclusion
The fonts are an awesome aesthetic in Star Control II. It is probably the first time any of us has seen specific fonts represent specific characters. The brief backstory that Paul described is very deep and they put a lot of effort in getting those fonts in there. I know that UQM HD has just begun and it’s great to see the great fonts being chosen for this version. The look of a font can convey the right emotion or personality when used properly. The reason why we don’t see fonts being used in this way today is because it lengthens development time and increases development costs because of licensing fees.
What do you think about the use of fonts to represent the character speaking?
“It’s the most rewarding project we’ve worked on since Star Control.”
- Paul Reiche, Gamasutra – “Toys For Bob’s Rewarding Skylanders Flight” by Leigh Alexander
TFB seems to be getting more time in the spotlight since the release of Skylanders. Leigh Alexander quotes Reiche on topics such as how I-Wei Huang collaborated with other co-workers to create the technology behind the toys and the fact that he had the idea of mixing physical toys and video games before Skylanders. He also mentions that the toys have from “30 to 60 paint operations” and surpassed quality standards.
It’s awesome that Paul mentioned Star Control in the article. Check out the article.
Even if we don’t see a new Star Control game next, do you think they’ll make games with all the TFB goodness we all know and love that made Star Control awesome?
Eric Hirshberg: “They’re not toys; these are superheroes they’re alive inside!”
Even though I am not a financial expert, I occasionally skim through Activision’s annual and quarterly for things that I may find interesting. The purpose of these reports are to show investors how much profit is being made and what their expectations for the future are. Needless to say, Activision is clearly making high profits. In this year’s report for the third quarter, Skylanders is mentioned multiple times, and Bobby Kotick gives a shout-out to Toys for Bob.
“…our industry-leading capability to develop original, globally-appealing innovative intellectual property, which we do exceptionally well, continues with Skylanders.”
“Also, with respect to industry firsts, I want to thank everyone at our wonderful studio, Toys for Bob, for all their inspired work on Skylanders. The game has received outstanding critical response, and although it’s early in the quarter, so far Skylanders is performing ahead for our expectations.”
“Modern Warfare 3, Call of Duty Elite and Skylanders are all extraordinary examples of how we continue to redefine entertainment around the world.”
-Bobby Kotick, Activision-Blizzard CEO
“Inventories of $207 million increased sequentially ahead of the Skylanders launch…”
-Thomas Tippl, Activision-Blizzard COO/CFO
“…we put a tremendous amount of passion, imagination and innovation to the creation of Skylanders and the result is the world’s first truly cross-platform game, which brings the world of toys, video games and the Web and mobile together like never before.”
“…in the West, the markets of toys is actually bigger than the market for video games. The franchise like Skylanders, which brings these 2 audiences together, represents significant opportunities.”
“…Skylanders is already on many of the most influential list for the top toys of the holidays including the Toys ‘R’ Us Holiday Hot Toy List, the Toy Insider ‘Hot 20 List’ and Time to Play’s ‘Power Ups’ holiday toy list.”
“…our retail partners have embraced Skylanders as though we’re an established franchise, giving us unprecedented shelf space and store presence.”
“…reviews have been incredibly strong, especially for a kids title. Gamers received an average 87 ranking across 5 platforms according to GAMESMagazine.com and my favorite are some of the reviews from the hard-core gamer press who really seem to love it.”
“…the game is performing ahead of our expectations in both starter pack sales and the sale of individual toys. As of today, there are already millions of toys in the hands of children around the world.”
“…after only a few weeks in the market, literally all of our major retail partners across all territories have already placed reorders.”
“So in summary, this year, we have delivered innovation with both Skylanders and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Call of Duty Elite, which are firsts for the industry.”
“…in terms of Skylanders, we’re not going to discuss exact attach rates but it is — we can say that it is higher than we expected.”
- Eric Hirshberg, Activision Publishing CEO
Conclusion
It is clear that Activision is continuing to make lots of money. They are the largest third-party publisher in the world. Even though Skylanders is completely different from what we were expecting before their announcement, it’s has been very successful. The combination of TFB’s creative control, younger target audience, fascinating toy collection elements and Activision’s strong marketing campaign made Skylanders far more successful than anyone could have imagined. After listening to Activision’s report, I almost forgot about the developers who were closed down or downsized because of unsuccessful games. Regardless of the video game politics, TFB is clearly here to stay and they are still growing in size. Because of this success, their relationship with Activision is stronger. It’s nice to hear that Kotick gave them a shout-out in the report in addition to the remark he made in an older interview that he was the one who gave TFB additional time during it’s development. Eric had the most to say about Skylanders because he is directly involved in publishing the games.
This is essentially the American equivalent of Pokémon. The collectible toy market is going to have stronger competition now and there will definitely be a sequel. If TFB isn’t working on Skylanders 2 as their next project, the TFB guessing game continues…
Their former intro. In Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam, the intro is slightly longer with the Ur-Quan theme is playing before the Orz theme.
In case you haven’t seen it yet, TFB has updated their intro video and website to reflect their most recent game, Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure. The video is made using stop motion techniques. The toy that is shown in this video is called Trigger Happy. His guns shoot coins, which may or may not be a reference to pirates who would stick any metallic objects in their blunderbuss, ranging from nails to valuable doubloons.
Check out the video and the links below.
I don’t want to jinx it, but I think it’s safe to say that Skylanders will be successful in ratings and sales to its younger demographic. The relationship between TFB and Activision has strengthened and they’ll have more games to work on for many years to come.
If they’re next games is not a Skylanders sequel, could it be a game geared towards an older audience? What do you think?
, but we know they are working hard on another secret unannounced project.
