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Crytek USA, Vigil devs aim to get the band back together with new studio
David Adams, formerly of Darksiders series development studio Vigil Games, has formed a new studio: Gunfire Games. It is a studio comprised of seven team members from Crytek USA, which itself was formed entirely from ex-Vigil staff in the wake of the THQ closure and auction. In other words, in the span of 18 months, Adams has gone from Vigil employee to Crytek employee to founder of his own studio. Adams told Polygon that the decision to leave Crytek was due in part to financial issues which recently hit the company - issues that Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli says were not as bad as you may think - but also due to the fact that people were abandoning Crytek's ship, many of whom Adams wanted to keep working with. "It really was the team," Adams said. "When you make a game, one of the most important elements of that is the people you work with. You could get 12 of the best developers in the world and put them into a room and they may not make a good game." Adams also said that he "jumped" at joining Crytek, which in hindsight may not have been the best decision. "Having gone through this a second time, the first time we jumped on the first deal that sounded good; this time, we feel a little more confident in our abilities," said Gunfire studio director Matt Guzenda. "We walked away from them, not the other way around." Adams and Guzenda told Polygon they're working to bring more of the original Vigil team together, and are knocking around ideas for what they want to do next, which Adams expressed could include more Darksiders games, should IP owner Nordic Games give their support. In the meantime, Crytek USA has been relieved of their development on Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age. [Image: Gunfire Games]
Crytek USA to be headed by former Vigil boss
Crysis developer Crytek has formed Crytek USA Corp. in Austin, Texas. Crytek notes the Austin studio is its ninth worldwide and will be headed by former Vigil general manager David Adams, who'll oversee a team of "35 experienced developers."Gamasutra asked Crytek if the new Austin studio was basically a purchase of defunct publisher THQ's shuttered Vigil Games, but Crytek informed the outlet it was "more like a new start for [the team at Vigil]."Vestiges of Vigil aren't the only thing Crytek picked up out of the THQ bankruptcy, purchasing the rights to Homefront for a half-million.Update: IGN has confirmed all 35 employees are former Vigil staff. [Image: Kushal Bose via Shutterstock]
THQ reveals the dark engine powering Warhammer 40K
Hungry for information -- any information at all -- on Vigil Games' upcoming Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online? Did you watch the Imperium of Man trailer and gibber, "More! MORE!" So did we. Unfortunately, it was looking like we'd have to be content with hints... ...but fortunately, Games On Net cornered David Adams, Vigil Games' GM, and pumped him for further details. While Adams was reluctant to go into the specifics of gameplay, he did open up about WAR40K's engine, which is the same one the company used for Darksiders. The engine is being tweaked for the MMO, although Adams testified that it was already great with portraying a seamless world, which should be perfect for WAR40K's needs. DirectX 11 is also slated for inclusion. So will the graphic requirements be low enough that the game could run on a toaster, or will it be a high-performance-only excursion? While Adams admits that the necessary graphic options will take a decent machine to run well, he's hoping to have as many visual toggles as possible so that WAR40K can reach a wider audience. He wouldn't say how many characters he expects the engine to handle in a certain area, other than to claim: "Big, it's 40K, it's all about big giant battlefields." You can watch the full video over at Games On Net.
Darksiders dev David Adams gushes about THQ
Unlike the less than wonderful relations some developers are currently having with their publishing partners, Vigil Games' general manager David Adams says things between his studio and THQ couldn't have been better during the development of Darksiders. "We were pretty lucky, just because our publisher had this weird, insane faith in us that I don't necessarily think any other publisher would have had ... our take was that if we just did really cool stuff, people would see that -- they'd want to jump on the bandwagon and support us, and THQ did," Adams tells GamesIndustry.biz in a recent interview. Adams adds that his studio is constantly "trying to be more efficient, do stuff quicker, using less money," so that certainly can't hurt how THQ feels about Vigil, especially given the last year of "restructuring" the publisher underwent to become financially solvent once again. "THQ went through a lot of pain and restructuring -- they took a lot of bullets so we could continue to make our game, and that's a good indication of their faith in us, and their drive to make great-quality products." We'd like to point out that, in this situation, we're all winners because THQ has seemingly become a competitive publisher again, due to producing quality products that we get to play -- and hey, tons of people don't lose their jobs.
PC Gamer's Warhammer 40k interview
While many people are eagerly awaiting the release of Warhammer Online, there's another MMO in development with same initial name: Warhammer 40,000 Online. Although the initial difference between the two is obvious -- one's a fantasy RTS, the other is a science fiction RPG -- a recent interview with Vigil Games' General Manager David Adams and Studio Creative Director Joe Madureira offers up more juicy details.Topics covered in the interview include customization options, available classes and NPCs, and how the existing Warhammer 40k universe will be introduced to gamers who may not have ever played the tabletop version. While there are still no beta or release dates on offer, development continues apace. We'll have more on this title as news emerges.
