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The Long Dark ventures to Steam Early Access
Hinterland Studio launched its first-person exploration game The Long Dark on Steam Early Access this week, making the in-development survival simulator available for PC and Mac users for $20. Set in the pacific northwest, the game forces players to scavenge for resources and survive the threat of starvation, wolves and more. The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind and The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion lead designer Ken Rolston joined the developer earlier this month. Rolston adds to a well-credited crew at Hinterland, which includes Far Cry 3 Narrative Director Raphael van Lierop. The Long Dark's journey took off with its success on Kickstarter in October 2013, at which point the developer earned $248,899. Those that want a taste of the game should revisit Joystiq Streams' archive from July, in which Hinterland took us through the dark woods for an hour. [Image: Hinterland Studio]
Elder Scrolls designer ventures into The Long Dark
Ken Rolston, lead designer of Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind and ES4: Oblivion, has partnered with Hinterland Games for The Long Dark, the studio's first-person, apocalyptic survival simulator. Rolston's high-profile credentials add to Hinterland's portfolio of experience, which includes Far Cry 3 Narrative Director Raphael van Lierop, lead writer for the PS3 God of War trilogy, Marianne Krawczyk, and Sascha Dikiciyan, who scored Mass Effect 3 and Borderlands 2. Regarding whether Rolston will remain with Turbine, the team he joined one year ago as its director of design, Turbine has shared a statement with our friends at Massively: "We don't normally comment on personnel issues, and we definitely can't comment on work Ken is doing for other studios, but I can confirm that he continues to consult for us." Fans won't have to wait much longer to test their aptitude at surviving the frozen wilderness – The Long Dark's Sandbox mode will welcome Early Access patrons into the cold on September 22, though beta members began reducing themselves to snowy corpses a few weeks ago. [Image: Hinterland Games]
Turbine hires Rolston, game industry veterans for high-level positions
Turbine wants you to know that it has hired a smattering of industry veterans to complement its existing Boston-based development team. Notables include former Elder Scrolls and Kingdoms of Amalur lead Ken Rolston, who steps into Turbine's Director of Design role. Mortal Kombat veteran Alan Villani is Turbine's new VP of Technology and responsible for driving "online engagement and monetization." Former Zynga manager Jai Singh has signed on to oversee Turbine's "online operations hosting and computing infrastructure, technical support, and network operations." Finally, Demetrius Comes, formerly of Petroglyph, is now Turbine's Executive Director of Engineering. [Source: Turbine press release]
Turbine hires Ken Rolston as new director of design, makes other staffing additions
Ken Rolston of Morrowind, Oblivion and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning fame is now the director of design at Turbine, the company announced this morning. Rolston's responsibilities will include leading "the vision and the implementation of all aspects of game design for Turbine."Rolston is joined by three others in the announcement: Alan Villani, formerly of Mortal Kombat dev NetherRealm Studios, is now Turbine's vice president of technology and "will be responsible for [the] digital technology platform that helps drive online engagement and monetization."Zynga alumni Jai Singh joins as the executive director of technical operations, in charge of Turbine's technical infrastructure and network operations, while ex-Petroglyph Games member Demetrius Comes fills the role of executive director of engineering, where he will oversee "all engineering functions for the studio's project development team."
38 Studios announces the addition of more industry vets to the team
Fresh off the launch of its single player game, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, 38 Studios has announced the addition of two new members to their team. John Blakely, who has worked for SOE and Zynga, will become their senior vice president of development, while Mark Hansen has come from LEGO Systems Inc. to take on the role of senior vice president of business operations. They both took the time to speak with Massively about their experience in the industry as well as their upcoming roles with 38 Studios. Read on for highlights from the interview!
Creating a new world: 38 Studios discusses the formation of Amalur's IP
As MMO fans, we're keeping a close eye on 38 Studios for its development of Project Copernicus, the MMO that will serve as the follow-up to next month's Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. The risk factor of not only developing two major intertwined projects in parallel but to have the additional task of creating a brand-new IP in which to put them must be a pressing one, which is why CVG sat down with Reckoning Lead Designer Ian Frazier to talk about challenges the studio has been tackling. Frazier outlines the balance the studio's struck between its three big-name creators -- Todd McFarlane (art), R.A. Salvatore (story), and Ken Rolston (design) -- not to mention the ideas that pour in from founder Curt Schilling. Fortunately, Frazier says that these larger-than-life personalities mesh well together: "The nice thing that's worked out is, I think if we'd got three famous game designers, it would have been a disaster: big egos, they're all on the same plane, it wouldn't have worked out. What makes this work is they're all different." Even though Rolston previously worked on The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Frazier said the designer wanted to try his hand at something fresh with a better combat system. "They're all great games," Frazier said of the Elder Scrolls series, "and I think they're progressively better, but they're all the same game. It's not like they're radically changing with time." Frazier said Reckoning has been compared to a "single-player WoW" as well as Dragon Age and Fable, but he insists that the world and ideas the team's been creating will take it far past those basic comparisons. You can take your first peek into the world of Amalur with the Reckoning demo -- and let us know what you think in the comments!
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning designs narrative with McFarlane, Salvatore, Rolston
Todd McFarlane, R.A. Salvatore and Ken Rolston walk into a bar. Mcfarlane orders a round for everyone and happily begins drinking. Salvatore takes one sip of his and spits it out, exclaiming, "What is this?" McFarlane finishes his gulp, sets down his glass and answers, "I reckon it's the king of beers, Bud Light." Salvatore and Rolston beat up Mcfarlane using their full pint glasses, leave him with the tab and storm out. As they're leaving, McFarlane mumbles through the blood in his mouth, "I always knew you were a mauler!" You're welcome. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning has an intriguing cast behind its conception, and the devs that got to work with McFarlane, Salvatore and Rolston certainly have plenty to say. See what the narrative designers thought of the terrific trio in the above video.
Preview the world of Copernicus with 38 Studio's Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning trailer
38 Studios has been in the news quite a bit over the last year despite not having a released game under its belt. While the upstart company still lacks a finished product, it's one step closer with today's release of the first gameplay trailer for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. The footage from the upcoming single-player RPG gives fans a first look at the world of Amalur, which 38 Studios will revisit in the Copernicus MMO to follow. In addition to featuring company president (and former World Series MVP) Curt Schilling, Reckoning boasts an impressive array of talent from both 38 Studios and Big Huge Games including lore-master R.A. Salvatore, former Morrowind and Oblivion lead designer Ken Rolston, and Spawn creator Todd McFarlane. The video clip showcases a good look at Amalur's fantasy trappings, glimpses of combat with several creatures (including a big bad), and a 2012 release date. Check out all the details after the cut.
GenCon 2010: Fantasy fencing with 38 Studios
One thing is for certain: When you are sitting in the crosshairs of Curt Schilling and R.A. Salvatore during an interview, it's easy to become bowled over by their collective intensity and passion, especially when it comes to their interest in games and fantasy worlds. While GenCon Indy lacked its usual MMORPG presence this year, Massively was able to grab a few minutes of face time with 38 Studios' founder and lead writer as they passed through the convention. It was a bit of an odd interview, however, as two of the biggest topics -- 38 Studios' move to Rhode Island and any solid details about their top-secret MMO -- were off the table for discussion. Do not fret, as that certainly didn't stop us from trying to pry for a few hints along the way. Schilling and Salvatore were obviously eager to spill the beans about Copernicus, but they are still biding their time until the right moment. Happily, the duo didn't mind us fencing with them for facts, and were quite open about their single-player RPG lead-up to Copernicus, their general philosophy of designing the MMO, and why they've waited so long to unveil it to the public. Read on, gentle gamers, for a few ripostes, parries and lunges with two of the biggest figures in the industry right now.
GDC10: Copernicus' Project Mercury being published by EA
If you have been eagerly awaiting news on the top-secret Copernicus over at 38 Studios, you'll be pleased to hear that 38 Studios broke the silence today. "Project Mercury," a single-player title set in the Copernicus universe, will be coming to the PC, XBox 360 and PS3. 38 Studios signed a publishing deal with EA to bring the game to market. "Project Mercury" is described as "an epic single-player role-playing game," and is being developed by 38 Studios-owned Big Huge Games under the guiding hand of Ken Rolston (Morrowind and Oblivion). This will be the first Copernicus project launched by Curt Schilling's team after years of anticipation and heavy speculation. As NASA's Project Mercury set out to test the boundaries of space by putting a man into orbit, "Project Mercury" looks to be testing the waters of single-player RPGs before diving into the realm of MMOs, similar to the approach of fan-favorite Torchlight. Stay tuned to Massively, as we meet with Copernicus' R. A. Salvatore later this week at GDC to pick his brain.
GDC08: The eight best stories in gaming
Tuesday afternoon four well-known games industry writers and designers got together to discuss the best storytelling gaming has to offer in a panel entitled "Stories Best Played: Deconstructing the Best Interactive Storytelling." Each of the authors brought a pair of games that they viewed as some of the narratively strongest yet made. Prior to the panel all four men played the ten titles, and came prepared to talk about the strengths and merits of each. Panelists Richard Rouse (Paranoid Productions), Steve Meretzky (Blue Fang), Marc Laidlaw (Valve Software), and Ken Rolston (Big Huge Games) offered up, in essence, a 'top eight' list for gamers looking to get more from exposition than explosions. Read on for views from a panel of expert opinions on the likes of Loom, BioShock, Phoenix Wright and the legendary Planescape: Torment.
Big Huge Games to make RPG with THQ
Remember how back in February we told you about Ken Rolston, lead designer for both Morrowind and Oblivion, joining the ranks of Big Huge Games (of recent Catan fame) to work on an RPG project? Well, last week there was an official announcement from THQ that they are working on that very same RPG project alongside BHG (with Ken in tow) and it will be hitting Xbox 360s, Windows Vista PCs and PS3s in 2009. Tim Train, President and COO of BHG displayed his enthusiasm towards the project's direction in the RPG genre. Make the jump to take the dive for more PR fluff to sift through. Still, THQ & BHG RPG FTMFingW?
Elder Scrolls lead designer joins Big Huge Games, developing "console RPG"
Big Huge Games (Rise of Nations) has lured acclaimed designer Ken Rolston out of retirement for one last RPG. Rolston was set to call it quits after his stint at Bethesda, which spawned Morrowind and Oblivion, but instead, the 25-year vet has moved on to another Maryland-based developer, known for its RTS games. "We remain committed to creating real-time strategy games," said BHG President Tim Train, adding, "At the same time, we've explored developing a role-playing game for several years now. Ken is a fantastic fit for us on every level, and gives us the leadership we need to be confident of success in our new venture.""I had planned to retire and rest on my laurels after Oblivion, but Tim and his army of visionary charmers came along with a strikingly original and cunning concept for a console RPG," said Rolston. Further details have yet to be revealed.
Ken Rolston creating RPG with Big Huge Games
Ken Rolston, the lead designer behind both Morrowind and Oblivion, has come out of retirement. Having announced his retirement last May, Rolston has been pulled back into the industry by Big Huge Games. Big Huge Games, as 360 Fanboy readers will know, is currently developing the Xbox Live Arcade title, Catan. Rolston said of the decision, "A chance to work on a Big Huge Game with Big Huge Games? Who could resist?" He added, "I had planned to retire and rest on my laurels after Oblivion, but Tim and his army of visionary charmers came along with a strikingly original and cunning concept for a console RPG...so now I'm back in the harness and chomping at the bit!"We won't delve into Big Huge Games' practice of putting harnesses on their designers, but the announcement is sure to excite western RPG fans everywhere. Platform designations for the upcoming game have not yet been announced (though it is noted as a console RPG), but considering Big Huge Games has been busy familiarizing themselves with the 360, we're optimistic. [Thanks, J. Goodwin]
RPG legend Ken Rolston retires
If you're an RPG gamer, there's a good chance Ken Rolston has had an impact on the many nights you and your buddies have spent engrossed in tabletop and online adventures. From pen and paper classics such as Dungeons & Dragons, Stormbringer, and Warhammer to that copy of Oblivion you're enjoying today, Rolston's contributions to the role-playing genre have been monumental. Rolston's most recent work has been at Bethesda Softworks, where he acted as lead designer on Morrowind, and played a significant part in the development of Oblivion. The latter will end up making an appropriate swan song, as he's decided to call it quits after decades of leveling up through the industry. Read [H] Consumer's interview with Ken to find out what his fondest achievement is, as well as his thoughts on the evolution of RPGs. You'll be missed, Ken![via TeamXbox]
