Goblin Commander |
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Goblin Commander |
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Millar brothers reunite at Jaleco Entertainment Video games publisher Jaleco Entertainmentä announces it has hired Producer Chris Millar and Designer Ron Millar to complement the development expertise at the company’s Boulder, Colorado, studio. The Millar brothers are perhaps best known for their work on the top-sellers within the Warcraft®, StarCraft® and Diablo® series.
"Ron and Chris bring incredible depth to our Jaleco Entertainment teams. Their vast industry knowledge and proven development skills will be integral to the success of this company as we continue producing quality software for the gaming public," said Studio Director Paul Meegan. "They are currently spearheading a project that will result in a landmark title for us."
Jaleco Entertainment will announce more details about the project in February.
The Millars have extensive experience developing Real Time Strategy titles for the PC platform. Chris was most recently the producer of StarCraft: Ghostä at Blizzard Entertainment®. He also worked on such hits Warcraft III Reign of Chaos® and Diablo II Lord of Destructionä. At Jaleco Entertainment, Chris rejoins his brother, Ron, who has been with Jaleco Entertainment since March 2002. While at Blizzard, Ron lead the design of Warcraft I® and Warcraft II®, was the original designer of StarCraft®, and contributed significantly to Diablo®. It was 1996 when they last worked together.
"It’s such a thrill for Ron and I to join forces for our next gaming adventure," said Chris. "We’re happy to be working together again and capitalizing on each other’s strengths to produce groundbreaking concepts and designs for Jaleco Entertainment."
Chris earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Advertising and Communications from California State University in Fullerton, California, and has been in the industry for more than seven years. Ron has been in the industry for more than 12 years and has served as the Vice President of his own game company where he contributed heavily to several games currently under development.
Jaleco Entertainment unleashes action-strategy game for console adventurers with Goblin Commander Jaleco Entertainmentä announced today that it is developing and will publish Goblin Commanderä: Unleash The Horde, an innovative action-strategy game for the next-generation consoles set in an epic fantasy universe. A fourth quarter release is planned.
In Goblin Commander: Unleash The Horde, players battle their way through the war-torn land of Ogriss, a world ruled by goblins. Spawned by the mighty wizard Fraziel, the goblins have fallen under a corrupt influence that now threatens the balance of power. Advancing through dark subterranean caves, lush woodland cities and towering storm-swept castles; the player wages war with an army of specialized goblin warriors and fearsome monsters to prevent the ultimate destruction of Ogriss.
"The Goblin Commander IP will mark a revolutionary step forward in console gaming," said Jaleco Entertainment President Richard Wnuk. "Before each mission, players are able to choose a unique clan type, each with their own combat specialties. This adds a whole new dimension to the strategy gameplay experience, providing a compelling new challenge to each mission - all with excellent replayability. We are confident that fans will find Goblin Commander to be the best action-strategy game on consoles to date."
Goblin Commander: Unleash The Horde sets itself apart from other Real-Time Strategy games with fast arcade-style action, richly detailed and destructible environments, and an easy-to-master control scheme designed specifically for console game pads. The project is spearheaded by strategy game developers Ron Millar and Chris Millar, who are known for their work on best-selling titles within the StarCraft®, Warcraft® and Diablo® series.
"We're thrilled to be bringing one of today's hottest genres to console gamers around the world," said Chris Millar, producer. "Goblin Commander offers plenty of fun fighting and destruction yet has enough thought provoking strategic and tactical elements to keep even the most hardcore RTS fan challenged and satisfied. It’s a perfect blend of brains and brawn."
Jaleco Entertainment plans full-force marketing support of Goblin Commander: Unleash The Horde, including an official website, multi-media advertising and retail promotions.
Story Five clans occupy the Goblin planet Ogriss, each responsible for collecting resources in their territory for a massive machine being assembled by their human wizard master, Fraziel. Every Goblin clan is a specialized working force, well adapted to their unique environment, and dedicated solely to their quest to complete the great machine. Each clan is headed by a single commander, who through the mastery of magic, projects his spiritual form to supervise and control the hordes of workers in his jurisdiction. Every few moons the commanders use this same magic to visit Fraziel and report their progress.
Now, unexpectedly, Fraziel has vanished and the Goblin clans are cut off from him and each other. Chaos ensues as blame is cast about, dividing loyalties and sparking inter-clan warfare. Your quest begins as Grommel, the Stonekrusher commander who must unite the clans and unravel the mystery surrounding Fraziel's disappearance... Developer Diary
June 25,
2003, 3 p.m. Behind the Game, Goblin Commander: Unleash the Horde Entering the Fog-of-War Welcome to the first installment of the official behind-the-scenes look at Goblin Commander: Unleash The Horde. The team is currently entering the final stages of development, heading "ludicrous speed" towards Beta. Content complete is a big milestone to hit because the closer you get to the end of a game's development, the more work there is. As we continue to tinker, tweak, and develop the final assets for the game, we’ll update these entries with all the latest development changes, decisions, arguments and late night silliness around the studio.
At this time, the countdown timer is ticking away faster and faster every day. But, confidence is high as Goblins, buildings, structures, and toxic shrubbery are being placed into the game more and more each day. The team is working long hours and the focus is on wrapping up all the final game content within the next few weeks. There truly is a lot of stuff to do for everyone involved, but it’s inspiring to watch the game becoming more and more robust and fun to play each day. We've come a long way on this project, and it’s been exciting to see these goblins taking on a life of their own.
This week, we have a begun some "first look" testing with our new QA hires. Basically, this is a time when you can sit down with someone who's never seen the game before and get their full uncensored thoughts and feelings on the game. This runs the gamut from, "WOW! That's cool!!" to "Umm...what the #@$% do I do here?" Although we have all been very confident in the game's direction over the past few months, it’s always nice to get some fresh eyes on the project. There are always things that you miss, that perhaps someone new can point out to you, especially when you are so close to the project. Goblin Commander creates new evolutions to the Strategy genre and we are curious to find out how well a newbie adapts to these, for example, with the dynamic Fog of War.
Strategy games have been mainstream for a while now, and everyone has come to accept the basic functions of Fog of War – the big dark space (only seen by non-cheaters) that obscures any areas on the map your units haven't explored. As you move into the darkness, units uncover terrain and enemy units that may be hiding out in there. This has worked for many games in the past, and will continue to do so for most titles that are mostly top-down or isometric in their viewpoint. But, when you drop down into Goblin Commander's direct-control, you have a goblin's- eye-view of the world. Therefore, in a totally unexplored region of the game, you have a big black TV screen and a little visible corner of the world, all lit up with a few goblins in an un-fogged area, waving at you saying, "HEY, WE'RE OVER HERE! QUICK, DO SOMETHING BEFORE "THE NOTHING" MOVES IN AND DESTROYS US!"
Well, maybe not quite. But it is definitely a challenge trying to balance making the player happy with strategy elements using Fog of War and keeping developers happy by making the game look as great as possible without having to black out all of the art with "fog." Our solution has been to dynamically use the Fog of War in two methods. The first uses the standard uncover-the-map method of showing the player only where units have traveled when you are in Commander (top-down strategic) mode. The other way is when players take direct-control and move the camera down to a third-person camera, we only obscure enemies that are out of sight range. This allows players to see all the beauty of the map within the vicinity of their own units, while still not giving away the enemy’s position. While in direct control, players are also unable to scroll all over the map and uncover everything, and so only the area around the units is nicely visible. It seems to be working out well right now, although we'll have to see how our new QA guys adjust to this new take on the RTS convention. |
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