Why?
Jops
Join Date: 2002-09-13 Member: 1312Members
Join Date: 2002-09-13 Member: 1312Members
<div class="IPBDescription">^</div>This was probably already answered but I can't find it anywhere... anywho
I was wondering what got you into making NS flayra? What inspired you? Did you wake up one morning and say: I'm going to make a half-life mod with the potential to beat CS which will consist of Mariens Vs. Aliens in an RTS setting and new state of the art features, *yawn* whats for breakfeast...
I just want to know where you got the idea, oh and who was with you from the begining if anybody- mainly wondering when monse and molec started rearing their opinionated heads <!--emo&:p--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'><!--endemo-->
Hope you can answer, thanx
Jops,
I was wondering what got you into making NS flayra? What inspired you? Did you wake up one morning and say: I'm going to make a half-life mod with the potential to beat CS which will consist of Mariens Vs. Aliens in an RTS setting and new state of the art features, *yawn* whats for breakfeast...
I just want to know where you got the idea, oh and who was with you from the begining if anybody- mainly wondering when monse and molec started rearing their opinionated heads <!--emo&:p--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'><!--endemo-->
Hope you can answer, thanx
Jops,
Comments
But I can speculate, as I was in game development myself, a while ago (yeah, I know I am pretty old).
The reasons are as follows:
(1) Love of the craft -
when you have a cool idea and skills, so the best way to realize the idea is to do it yourself. Few things in life can compare to the euphoria you experience when you fire a weapon whose logic you coded up last night (in an unadulterated, primal, look-ma-what-I-can-make-the-computer-do sense).
(2) Unbeatable career portfolio item -
how does "created the most popular modification using industry-standard game engine, while supervising a rag-tag pool of talent" sound? In the game industry, without a good demo and solid experience you are next to nothing. Sad but true.
Last and probably least, maybe if NS is polished enough after a number of betas it could go the way of Counter-Strike (i.e. appear on shelves in shrink-wrapped clothing). Then all of Flayra's hard work would be somewhat compensated by royalties.
Although by that time, he would probably be leading a new project at some phat development farm (Valve?)
Another important benefit, and not explicitly a goal, is the gratification from all the moral support NS fanatics have been rightfully giving to Flayra.
Rock on F!
Stan R.
That's Flay's homepage.
Basically, Flayra considers Mods to be a form of Art. I believe NS is meant to be his Mona Lisa.
I've always loved the idea of a "deep" FPS, or the idea of allowing RTS players and FPS players to play in the same game and enhance each other's experience. It seems like an idea that should work perfectly, and I could never understand why this area is so untouched. It also seems like a step that would bring teamplay and clans to the next level, where different build trees and command strategies can be created and used for truly memorable games. Mostly though, I want people to play this. Tribes and Battlezone have been moving in this direction, but were too hard-core and/or were marketed badly or too rushed out the door to gain real numbers. It seemed to me that a mod would be the best way to get this gameplay into as many hands as possible, and would allow the genre and ideas to really take off.
So there was no question I was going to work on something, but the form was undecided. I worked on some of these ideas in some unfinished game design documents and a Tribes mod (that I never finished, but was a server-side only mod and of much smaller scope).
I started working on something with my friend Steve (Ashley, from Stainless) originally, but he was too busy to continue working on it, and we didn't know exactly what our goals were. I then designed the essentials for NS, and Cory and I started working on it. That was just over two years ago and we've been working and growing our numbers ever since. If nothing else, this whole project has been a great learning experience, and well worth the time and money just for that.
As for the money issue: it wasn't part of the plan, but if it means I can continue to make my own games, it sounds good to me. The chances of NS making money aren't that great, but it may allow the team or myself to work on another game in the future.
For me (Which of course, has no relevance to Flay) its really seeing people enthusiatic about what you've done. Like when I threw up a few of my crappy animations to Paroxysm, and then getting the response "Hey, those are pretty cool. Welcome to the team." It makes my pink aura of happiness ™ grow to immeasurable lengths.
/me opens up three tutuorial pages and Battle for the Saratoga.doc
I predict no VR suits, instead you'll plug a cable in the back of your neck a la the Matrix. Or at least put a brain wave reading helmet on.
are you w00ting because u dont ahve 2 do any work, or cause flay and co. did a better job then you ever would <!--emo&:p--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'><!--endemo-->