stuart-black
Latest
Stuart Black abandons Enemy Front, City Interactive
Stuart Black, creative director of Codemasters' Bodycount and designer of Criterion's Black, has left his most recent publisher, City Interactive, where he was working on Enemy Front. Black has a history of establishing a shooter franchise at a new studio and then leaving the studio to work on another shooter franchise, a trend we noticed even back in 2010.Black left City Interactive in August, CEO Marek Tyminski says, according to Polish website Miastogier and translated by VG24/7. Black left after his vision for Enemy Front proved to be "different from" City Interactive's. Enemy Front was announced in November 2011 as a World War II first-person-shooter, but since Black's departure it has changed directions."Following the first game shows, press releases, we decided to take into account the media attention and now we have made a number of quite significant changes in the game storyline and assumptions, including the main character," Tyminski says.City Interactive is now working with cinematic director Mark Bristol in the US and on an "extensive" multiplayer mode, handled by a team in Romania.Black's LinkedIn now lists his occupation as "indie developer."
Enemy Front is a WWII shooter by Stuart Black, arriving in 2012
Stuart Black's "exciting new story-driven WWII shooter" will be called Enemy Front, publisher City Interactive announced today. The game will be powered by CryEngine 3 and will launch on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC with an expected 2012 release date. Hopefully, Enemy Front ends up having a happier legacy than Black's previous two high-profile projects: Black and Bodycount. Criterion Games kept on driving with car games after Black left the studio following Black's cool reception. And then there's Bodycount, which Black bailed on before production ended, and had a bodycount that included the game's reviews and the studio itself.
Bodycount preview: The journey
I'm going to take the mic here for a moment, readers, and tell you something personally: It has been fascinating to watch the development of Codemasters' FPS Bodycount. I originally posted the game's unofficial announcement early last year, saw a preview and talked to creator Stuart Black at last year's E3, saw the game in action after Black left the project and, finally, got to see and play it last week at this year's E3 conference. Long story short, I've basically had a front row seat on the development of this one, and it's been very interesting to watch it develop over the past 16 months. Black's original vision was not much more than just a demo level, a slick future shooter with a snappy female voice feeding orders in your ear. And from preview to preview, that vision has been prodded and poked by other developers, growing up into the game Bodycount has become. Unfortunately, much of what appealed in the initial vision has gotten a little muddied along the way. Some elements of that early demo are still in there (and there's a whole lot more besides), but Bodycount's gone from a lot of unique potential to a much more mundane reality. %Gallery-126207%
Bodycount preview: Paint it something other than Black
Last time we saw Codemasters' FPS Bodycount was back at E3, when creative director Stuart Black declared Lady Gaga as one of the game's influences. Cut to six months later and Black has left the company, and the game's been delayed to next summer. So how's Bodycount doing? Not as bad as you might think. It turns out Black's leaving Codemasters wasn't completely unexpected. "We'd been talking about it for a while," Andy Wilson, the game's director, told us at a recent press event. "He had it in his mind -- there'd been some hints -- and we started talking about it more shortly after E3. It's a personal decision with him -- it's certainly not something to do with us or anything that was happening on the project. It was just his time to go." [Ed.'s note: Black claims otherwise, telling GameSpot in a recent interview that "it was clear that Codemasters were unable, or unwilling, to provide the support needed to realize the vision I had for Bodycount."] So Black moved on, but Bodycount, Wilson assured, is "still going to be the game that it was going to be at the beginning." %Gallery-110342%
Stuart Black now at City Interactive, working on a 'story-driven WWII shooter'
We're noticing a trend here. Stuart Black comes to a studio, helps to get a shooter off the ground, then silently vanishes into the night as he heads off to help the next studio in need -- at least, that's what we'd like to imagine happens, as the prominent designer of Criterion's Black now has a new gig at City Interactive working on yet another shooter. Evidence points to a game running CryEngine 3, as the company recently licensed the engine for two first-person shooters it's currently developing. According to Gamasutra, Black will head up a studio in London and work on what he calls an "exciting new story-driven WWII shooter" that will "emphasize high adventure in a genre that's become bogged down in reverence and historical accuracy." Hey, you're totally preaching to the choir, bud! Why, if we had a nickel for how many times the facts got in the way, we'd be millionaires right now and not -- uh, well, Dollar Menunaires.
Stuart Black to leave Codemasters this October, Bodycount still on for early 2011
Black and Bodycount developer Stuart Black has announced intentions to vacate his current position at Codemasters this October, Eurogamer reports. "He's got all his design work to do but he's going to finish before he leaves the team to complete the game, which takes him through to October," Codemasters says. Apparently an "80-strong team" will remain working on Bodycount after Black's departure, seeing through the game to its planned "early 2011" release window. Though Eurogamer claims Black's choice to leave is predicated on "post-E3 fallout," Codemasters has denied as much to Develop, saying, "It isn't really the case that Stuart has left from 'E3 fallout,' there's nothing like that going on. E3 coverage was actually very good." We've followed up with Black for clarification of his reasons for leaving, but for now, Codemasters assures us that "progress continues" on Bodycount. %Gallery-95082%
Bodycount's Stuart Black discusses his inspirations
Stuart Black showed off his upcoming Bodycount title on the show floor here at E3, and while we were able to see the title earlier this month, we did talk with the creator about the sense of fun he's trying to bring to the shooter genre this time around. "I wanted to get away from the seriousness of so many shooters at the moment," he told us. "Serious men in dangerous roles, and all that jazz, yeah? And we wanted to create something that was a little bit silly, a little bit ridiculous and more uplifting." Lady Gaga was apparently an influence, after Black saw one of her concerts. "Going to her show, feeling really uplifted and energized by that, and going like yeah, I want to get that kind of spirit in the game. Just want to have fun with it -- fun with a gun!" And to accomplish that, Black put things like XP and health orbs in the game that looked familiar if you've ever hunted Agility Orbs in Pacific City. "The orbs are a little homage to Crackdown. I'm a big fan of Dave Jones, I've known him on and off for years, great to see him back making games again." He also pointed out an in-game nod to Metal Gear Solid (an exclamation point marker on a building), and gave some kudos to Borderlands, another shooter with an arcade bent. "I was quite surprised at how well the [damage] numbers worked in Borderlands. You see it in videos, and you're like, that looks a bit naff. But you play it, and you're like, that's really $*(%ing cool, actually ... That spirit is sort of lost in video games, and we can do that stuff, and we should revel in it."
Preview: Bodycount
When the finishing touches are placed on Bodycount, Stuart Black's follow-up to last generation's Black, it has the potential to be a fun, sexy, arcade FPS. Unfortunately, the pre-E3 demo that I played wasn't ready for the limelight. It's refreshing to see a more light-hearted take on the genre, with a focus on the sheer fun of firing weapons. I certainly wouldn't mind a change of pace from the gravitas and machismo of games like Call of Duty and Killzone. Bodycount's colorful, spy-themed world reminds me of Monolith's No One Lives Forever series -- and that's a good thing. The world of Bodycount is heavily influenced by TV's Alias, with the player assuming the role of a reluctant operative, thrown into unstable areas of conflict. For reasons unknown to the player, he's become a member of "The Network," an organization whose slogan -- "Your Safety is our Concern" -- comes off as more than a little disingenuous. His objectives come courtesy of an unidentified female handler, and the game promises to explore the evolving relationship between the two. %Gallery-95082%
Interview: Bodycount creative director Stuart Black
Codemasters' upcoming Bodycount is a rather curious project, building upon the foundations of last generation's Criterion Games-developed FPS Black with inspirations as varied as Alias, Star Trek and Lady Gaga. The eccentricities of Bodycount appear to be a reflection of its creator, Stuart Black -- a man that shares his game's energetic, in-your-face attitude. Joystiq: First off, the title: Is there a deeper meaning behind the obvious implication of the name "Bodycount?" Stuart Black: You shoot a lot, a lot of people. You're going to kill a lot of people in this game, achieving that body count. We're not going to be apologetic about it. That's not what the game is about; it's about firing guns -- and what are guns for? Killing people. We want you to understand that everyone you kill in this game ... they deserve it! They're all nut-jobs. I didn't actually come up with the title Bodycount. It was actually one of my other designers in the studio, and soon as he said it, I was, "Of course, it totally fits." %Gallery-87733%
Bodycount confirmed for Xbox 360, PS3; early 2011 release
Bodycount says: One! One new gallery of screens from Codies' new IP digg_url = 'http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/09/bodycount-confirmed-for-xbox-360-ps3-early-2011-release/'; Taking aim at the "whack-a-mole mechanics" of your typical cover-based shooter, Codemasters is finally ready to take the wraps off Bodycount, the new first-person shooter IP in production at Codemasters Studios Guildford under the direction of Black creator Stuart Black. "Our shredding tech enables us to create a different kind of gameplay, where players and AI can't hide behind indestructible cover," says Black. "Here the environment is constantly changing as the game world is shot to hell; it's going to be a huge amount of fun." That huge amount of fun will be built on the EGO Game Technology Platform, an evolution of Codemasters' EGO Engine, for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The story has something to do with killing 'Targets' – those are the bad guys – on behalf of the 'Network' – ostensibly the good guys. In addition to a full campaign, Bodycount will feature expected FPS enhancements like online multiplayer and co-op modes. Codies' "first internally produced new IP for many years" will be shredding environments in Q1 2011. We'll let executive producer – and former Sony London director – Tom Gillo have the last comically hyperbolic word on Bodycount: "From the jaw-dropping devastation caused by firing into enemies or shredding the world around you in a hail of bullets, Bodycount will crystalize that moment of pulling the trigger into an exhilarating sensory overload of action." %Gallery-87733%
Codemasters' new FPS, Bodycount, announced briefly
Codemasters' new FPS from Black creator Stuart Black has been revealed by OXM UK -- and then promptly unrevealed, when the article was taken down. Bodycount is not based on Ice-T's metal band Body Count, because the world couldn't possibly be that beautiful. However, the cover of OXM (accessed through a Google cache of the article) calls it "the ultimate shooter." Since there won't be any shooters after this one, we assume that means it's really cool. We'll find out more this week as the magazine arrives in UK homes, and presumably when an announcement is put online for good. Given the venue of announcement, we at least know it is an Xbox 360 game. [Via Destructoid]
Codemasters working on new FPS from creator of Black
Hey, remember Black, the PS2 and Xbox FPS created by Criterion Games before it went all-in on Burnout Paradise? Turns out the name wasn't just short for "black ops" -- the senior designer on the title was Stuart Black, and the vice president of development for Codemasters has now confirmed that he's working on a new game in a new studio for the company. Black will join former game director at Sony London, Tom Gillo, and senior producer Andrew Wilson on an 80-person team working with Codemasters' EGO engine to develop the brand-new IP, which the UK's Official Xbox Magazine seems to be hinting is "the shooter that everybody asked for." We've heard a lot of people ask for a next-gen No One Lives Forever sequel, but that's probably not what they mean. Black did have some nice stylistic twists, however, so while this game is definitely not a direct sequel (Criterion still owns that IP), we'll expect to see Black's ideas assembled in a new form.
