ok well full props to you polar. But i feel i just have to say that its not 'new' the fact that they all have other jobs to 'make up their low pay'. Wasnt to me anyway. Especially in regard to their art director, hes always had to do that.
But still, i dont want to deter you from your investigation so please carry on
[edit] although thats odd, Registreringsdato 20.09.2007 and not in greece......!!
Darkfall is being produced my amatuers; this is well knowned. Untill I posted there CV's I dont think it was proven though. What I definitely think was not well known is that Aventurine and Darkfall appears to be entirely owned by its own developers and producers, and these owners are probably its only or largest investors. The last two articles have basically stated they have brought up the game for the first time in its entirely and that they have dropped some features. And this is according to Tasos, who possibly got caught telling lies at the recent Greek gaming conference, how can you be sure what he says is true anymore, especially considering his track record. The question is can they produce? Do they have the time to produce? Do they have the resources to produce?
Thats what Ive been asking, and I think Ive answered those questions already, did you read anything else apart from the Linkedin profiles information?
Basically what I am expecting is that this game will be a mixture of SB and Mount & Blade. And if slightly better than both I will stick with it for awhile. I personally think people like Tasos have been giving the community the impression that they can expect allot more then that, but I may be wrong.
Kshnik, very well surmised. It is interesting the extent to which "Polly" goes on and on and on, assumption after assumption after assumption. Pointless arguing against as his full time job seems to be plastering every post to the point where people just get bored.
I haven't seen anything here that overly concerns me above what we already know. <Mod edit>
________________________________________________________ Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
I got my hands on a short video taken in the Darkfall alpha client. This is an amateur video, not an official release. I guess more than anything it shows the game isn't dead in the water and might even be beta worthy pretty soon.
Alpha videos “leaked” by anonymous Guild members that claim they show the game is still in development , and might be in beta “soon”
Sounds suspiciously similar to articles written about Visits by anonymous Guild members that claim they show the game is still in development, and might be in beta “soon”
The way at the end the hand comes over the camera just looks so fake and suspicious like they are trying to give the impression they don’t want this to come out because its “Alpha”, ridiculous, this was taken in their own office by one of the developers and obviously given to a member of this guild for publicity purposes.
I just hope they did not use Torque SDK for this 2005 "alpha" video and they have not been using it for all the other videos and screenshots so far.
Apparently after Bjorn Eirik Larsen got a job at Aventurine as their only AI programmer in 2004, he was still only at the stage of playing around with some with some ideas for Darkfall's NPC's AI.
Hardly re-assuring that Darkfall’s NPC AI was still at the early idea’s stage in late 2004 and that apparently only 1 person who only appears to have previous experience in music composition / programming and special effects in the gaming industry was responsible for this considerable task.
But he was a Torque SDK owner so maybe that was more important…
Doesnt surprise me torque is being mentioned here, always thought some of the early stuff was coded in it. Maybe the early engine, i highly doubt it is in this current engine. But who knows.
Doesnt surprise me torque is being mentioned here, always thought some of the early stuff was coded in it. Maybe the early engine, i highly doubt it is in this current engine. But who knows.
If that’s true then that would make the Developers liars because they have publicly stated all technology used and the game engine have been developed independently in-house for Darkfall.
Did you watch the link to the first Alpha video?, its looks like it might be made in Torque to me but I’m no expert, if they were using Torque in 2005 and lying about it, how can we be sure they have not continued using it or continued lying to us?
The video isn't that old. It's a leak that we decided to own up to and Deyth was given permission to show it. There are probably more of them. I believe this was taken using a digital camera during some playtesting.
Some things that we need to explain about what you're looking at:
--The characters showing in the video are not NPC guards, they're player characters that we use for testing. You can make out some NPCs standing behind the tables in the marketplace in the background.
--The staff isn't a melee weapon and that's why the character wielding it is in first person. It's a dwarven mage staff and that's why it looks so compact and solid like a mace. If the character switched to a melee weapon he would have gone into third person.
--The first person hands and art in general that you see in the video are temps and so is the movement, the distance from the viewer, the animation etc.
--Casting time and the casting bar are disabled in this instance for testing purposes.
--Graphics are improved, and will be further improved from what you see in the leaked video
--The health bar contains an insane amount of hitpoints for the testing of the battle system and that's why you don't see much of a change on it
--Many of the things you see in this video are temporary, other things are not activated, or showing, or optimized.
We would have preferred an official release for the first Darkfall gameplay video but this is out there now, it's Darkfall, so there you go.
Excuses, justifications, and explanations about the video and vague indications that there might be more to come “soon”
it does make one wonder how these guys, obviously inexperienced was able to create an engine to live up to expectations....
Personally i do think they have a game, and it will be released, i just dont have high expectations on it being any good. Especially as they make big claims about performance (200+ players without lag that kind of thing). Theres just too many people giving their lives to this game for it not to be true.
Really surprised about razorwax going bankrupt in 2006, was under the impression they merged with aventurine.
The thing i would agree on you is that we appear to get half truths about the whole situation.
Rickey Sickenger Lead Tools programmer for Darkfall also seems to of found the time or necessity to start and run his own company "Sickenger IT Solutions"in 2005 , again one employee, presumably himself, address registered in Norway.
Really surprised about razorwax going bankrupt in 2006, was under the impression they merged with aventurine. The thing i would agree on you is that we appear to get half truths about the whole situation.
As you can see I have shown the founders/ owners / investors / directors/ developer-producers of Razorwax are mostly the same people who I have shown are also the founders/ owners/ investors/ directors/ developer-producers of Aventurine.
They have eventually all been listed as Darkfall Developers and Producers depending on when they decided to publicly reveal them, the members who were not Norwegian under Razorwax were simply not publicly mentioned until they created Aventurine.
They never “found” a Greek Company to “publish” Darkfall and continue its development like they announced.
They created Aventurine and then moved to Greece ostensibly to continue development of Darkfall, but Razorwax was still a company run and owned by them attempting to offer some form of online gambling/sweepstakes/bingo service which was never profitable and was declared bankrupt in 2006.
What I want to know is how much of the 550k dollar investment that Razorwax got in 2000 actually get spent on developing Darkfall before they created Aventurine and apparently moved to Greece, and how much of it went on trying to unsuccessfully develop and run gambling services.
Your basically highlighting all the things i have discovered myself over the last couple of years. Based on this, rightly or wrongly i still think there will be a release. Maybe next year? :P
it's quite possible that they use the 'idea' of darkfall to acutally further their own careers and not need to have a real product. That line of thinking is looking a bit more appealing than it was.
They never “found” a Greek Company to “publish” Darkfall and continue its development like they announced. They created Aventurine and then moved to Greece ostensibly to continue development of Darkfall,
So you're saying that years back when they announced that they had a publisher and were moving to Greece to be with that new publisher --- they actually intentionally told a lie to possibly make themselves look better? :::::Gasp:::::
Why didn't they just say --- Razorwax is picking up shop and moving to Greece and opening a new company there because the labor is so much cheaper.
Awhile ago i tried to find out about Jade El Mehdawi but to no avail. If anyone can, that might be interesting.
btw its about time http://www.razorwax.com disappeared considering they went bankrupt 2 years ago. Wouldnt surprise me that aventurine was formed by the same guys from razorwax because of financial troubles. When you go bankrupt you cannot be the director of another company for so many years. That would make sense.
Yes its all very strange Your basically highlighting all the things i have discovered myself over the last couple of years. Based on this, rightly or wrongly i still think there will be a release. Maybe next year? :P it's quite possible that they use the 'idea' of darkfall to acutally further their own careers and not need to have a real product. That line of thinking is looking a bit more appealing than it was.
Artemis I’ve also suspected this all along too, but I never spent the time to find the proof or at least substantial evidence to support my supposition, or to bring already known circumstantial or indirect things together.
It’s a fact now that Razorwax and Aventurine are owned and founded by the same people, and probably entirely self financed by them, apart from the only known investment they got from 2000 (550K $’s)
And also a fact beyond reasonable doubt now that non or very few of them had any prior experience in developing online games, and the majority of the less senior developers/ testers are mostly recruited internally from Greece, who are also likewise of limited capability.
The real reasons why they lied and decided to make a new company and move to Greece to develop Darkfall is open to speculation, apart from the obvious, like its cheaper in Greece and the business regulations are less restrictive or prior contacts with Greece etc.
I’m still not ready to declare anything definite or final about the state of Darkfall but judging by all the information I have found recently it is looking very bad.
Awhile ago i tried to find out about Jade El Mehdawi but to no avail. If anyone can, that might be interesting. btw its about time http://www.razorwax.com disappeared considering they went bankrupt 2 years ago. Wouldnt surprise me that aventurine was formed by the same guys from razorwax because of financial troubles. When you go bankrupt you cannot be the director of another company for so many years. That would make sense.
I’ve never been able to find out anything about Jade El Mehdawi either, its obviously a middle eastern name, but from what country I could not say, perhaps LIBYA!, that would explain the Libyan connection.
Like someone posted in a thread about Darkfall, this type of game can not be coded with a 5 - 10 man teram. To do what they are hyping you need a vast team of experinced coders and a vast reaserach and planning team. This is beyond a joke. This type of game would need huges amounts of funding of millions upon millions of dollars. The team to make a game like this would need to be huge, and not a 5 man team in a basement.
Its quite clear now they arse setting up all these companies for tax evasion and money laundering. Why would they keep setting up these businesses? and also working on the biggest revolutionary mmo tha6t promises everything?? Its blataantly obviuos a game of this magnitude needs 24/7 work and the biggest dev team in history, along with some very very very clever planners thinkers and coders., and millions upon millions of dollars far exceeding anythign blizzard spent on wow.
Its quite obviuos these crooks dont have any of this.
Presisering: Årsoppgjøret is not made within the legal time limit. (Source: Auditor)
2005
Presisering: Illegal loans to shareholder, the general manager, board member or other (Source: Auditor)
Presisering: Årsoppgjøret is not made within the legal time limit. (Source: Auditor)
2003
Presisering: Illegal loans to shareholder, the general manager, board member or other (Source: Auditor)
Check the announcements and you can see multiple auditing problems, changes of address, changes of directors, changes of board members etc., I'm no expert so I dont know if it just looks suspicious and dubious or if its actually illegal.
so wait a second , Tasos's real name is Anastasias "Tasos" Flampouras ?? not Tasos flambouras?
Yes, Anastasios Flampouras, obviously Tasos.
You can see their full and correct names on the documents I have linked too, of course I’m presuming they actually used there real full and correct names on these legal documents but decided not to for a more informal impression when promoting and marketing Darkfall.
The change between p and b might be language differences, or a typo.
Aventurine seems to of found the money to be clients of or still are currently clients of at least two consultancy firms one in 2006, the other at some time after 2005.
Broadband Services - Digital culture - Digital Future
(Period 2006-2007) 100% success
Prepare a Business Plan
Development broadband services
under the programme
«Funding for the Enterprise
Advanced Funding
Broad Band »
AVENTURINE A.E Premium Consulting 2006
Seems strange that they have spent this money on consultation when at the time Darkfall was obviously no where near launch or even Beta, and they appear to be so financially limited.
And even now over a year later still no definite Beta or release date yet, of course I’m assuming this consultancy and “business plan for development of broadband services” is related to Darkfall.
Its possible that its not and maybe they have planned or started in the past or are still planning other “broad band services” like the gambling / bingo service under Razorwax or even other completely unrelated business .
Comments
ok well full props to you polar. But i feel i just have to say that its not 'new' the fact that they all have other jobs to 'make up their low pay'. Wasnt to me anyway. Especially in regard to their art director, hes always had to do that.
But still, i dont want to deter you from your investigation so please carry on
[edit] although thats odd, Registreringsdato 20.09.2007 and not in greece......!!
Knights who say Ni website!
I haven't seen anything here that overly concerns me above what we already know. <Mod edit>
________________________________________________________
Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
Bjorn Eirik Larsen, listed as AI programmer on the A-team from late 2004.
http://www.garagegames.com/my/home/view.profile.php?qid=42501
Profile: Bjorn Eirik Larsen
Bjorn Eirik Larsen
Name:
Bjorn Eirik Larsen
Member Type:
Member
Member Since:
Oct 07, 2004
Last Login:
Jun 17, 2005 at 11:57 GMT
Last Update:
Oct 07, 2004
Location:
Athens - Greece
Notes:
Torque SDK Owner
Is it purely a coincidence that the first Darkfall video the “leaked” alpha video was released after this in 2005?
http://www.darkfallonline.eu/darkfall-bilder/v/Videos/darkfall_pvp_alpha.jpg.html
I hope not, because the developers have claimed this game’s engine and its technology has been developed entirely in-house from scratch.
So I hope a developer joining the team in Oct 2004 who owns Torque SDK has no relevance to the “leaked” alpha video being released the next year.
Apparently this is how the video got the community
8/8/2005 |
TheCombine Link | views: 624
Darkfall Alpha PvP Video
I got my hands on a short video taken in the Darkfall alpha client. This is an amateur video, not an official release. I guess more than anything it shows the game isn't dead in the water and might even be beta worthy pretty soon.
Alpha videos “leaked” by anonymous Guild members that claim they show the game is still in development , and might be in beta “soon”
Sounds suspiciously similar to articles written about Visits by anonymous Guild members that claim they show the game is still in development, and might be in beta “soon”
The way at the end the hand comes over the camera just looks so fake and suspicious like they are trying to give the impression they don’t want this to come out because its “Alpha”, ridiculous, this was taken in their own office by one of the developers and obviously given to a member of this guild for publicity purposes.
I just hope they did not use Torque SDK for this 2005 "alpha" video and they have not been using it for all the other videos and screenshots so far.
Apparently after Bjorn Eirik Larsen got a job at Aventurine as their only AI programmer in 2004, he was still only at the stage of playing around with some with some ideas for Darkfall's NPC's AI.
fhttp://www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=21869
Hardly re-assuring that Darkfall’s NPC AI was still at the early idea’s stage in late 2004 and that apparently only 1 person who only appears to have previous experience in music composition / programming and special effects in the gaming industry was responsible for this considerable task.
But he was a Torque SDK owner so maybe that was more important…
Doesnt surprise me torque is being mentioned here, always thought some of the early stuff was coded in it. Maybe the early engine, i highly doubt it is in this current engine. But who knows.
Knights who say Ni website!
If that’s true then that would make the Developers liars because they have publicly stated all technology used and the game engine have been developed independently in-house for Darkfall.
Did you watch the link to the first Alpha video?, its looks like it might be made in Torque to me but I’m no expert, if they were using Torque in 2005 and lying about it, how can we be sure they have not continued using it or continued lying to us?
What I find even more suspicious are Tasos’s responses to some of the comments about the “leaked” Alpah video http://www.the-combine.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=15624
Some things that we need to explain about what you're looking at:
--The characters showing in the video are not NPC guards, they're player characters that we use for testing. You can make out some NPCs standing behind the tables in the marketplace in the background.
--The staff isn't a melee weapon and that's why the character wielding it is in first person. It's a dwarven mage staff and that's why it looks so compact and solid like a mace. If the character switched to a melee weapon he would have gone into third person.
--The first person hands and art in general that you see in the video are temps and so is the movement, the distance from the viewer, the animation etc.
--Casting time and the casting bar are disabled in this instance for testing purposes.
--Graphics are improved, and will be further improved from what you see in the leaked video
--The health bar contains an insane amount of hitpoints for the testing of the battle system and that's why you don't see much of a change on it
--Many of the things you see in this video are temporary, other things are not activated, or showing, or optimized.
We would have preferred an official release for the first Darkfall gameplay video but this is out there now, it's Darkfall, so there you go.
Excuses, justifications, and explanations about the video and vague indications that there might be more to come “soon”
it does make one wonder how these guys, obviously inexperienced was able to create an engine to live up to expectations....
Personally i do think they have a game, and it will be released, i just dont have high expectations on it being any good. Especially as they make big claims about performance (200+ players without lag that kind of thing). Theres just too many people giving their lives to this game for it not to be true.
Really surprised about razorwax going bankrupt in 2006, was under the impression they merged with aventurine.
The thing i would agree on you is that we appear to get half truths about the whole situation.
Knights who say Ni website!
Rickey Sickenger Lead Tools programmer for Darkfall also seems to of found the time or necessity to start and run his own company "Sickenger IT Solutions"in 2005 , again one employee, presumably himself, address registered in Norway.
http://www.purehelp.no/vis.asp?company_name=SICKENGER+IT+SOLUTIONS&ftknr=5B4B4F444616464C4A
As you can see I have shown the founders/ owners / investors / directors/ developer-producers of Razorwax are mostly the same people who I have shown are also the founders/ owners/ investors/ directors/ developer-producers of Aventurine.
They have eventually all been listed as Darkfall Developers and Producers depending on when they decided to publicly reveal them, the members who were not Norwegian under Razorwax were simply not publicly mentioned until they created Aventurine.
They never “found” a Greek Company to “publish” Darkfall and continue its development like they announced.
They created Aventurine and then moved to Greece ostensibly to continue development of Darkfall, but Razorwax was still a company run and owned by them attempting to offer some form of online gambling/sweepstakes/bingo service which was never profitable and was declared bankrupt in 2006.
What I want to know is how much of the 550k dollar investment that Razorwax got in 2000 actually get spent on developing Darkfall before they created Aventurine and apparently moved to Greece, and how much of it went on trying to unsuccessfully develop and run gambling services.
Yes its all very strange
Your basically highlighting all the things i have discovered myself over the last couple of years. Based on this, rightly or wrongly i still think there will be a release. Maybe next year? :P
it's quite possible that they use the 'idea' of darkfall to acutally further their own careers and not need to have a real product. That line of thinking is looking a bit more appealing than it was.
Knights who say Ni website!
this blows me away, you guys are pulling up some rather interesting info about these folks.
So you're saying that years back when they announced that they had a publisher and were moving to Greece to be with that new publisher --- they actually intentionally told a lie to possibly make themselves look better? :::::Gasp:::::
Why didn't they just say --- Razorwax is picking up shop and moving to Greece and opening a new company there because the labor is so much cheaper.
This game has more drama than the days of our lives holy smokes lol.
playing eq2 and two worlds
Awhile ago i tried to find out about Jade El Mehdawi but to no avail. If anyone can, that might be interesting.
btw its about time http://www.razorwax.com disappeared considering they went bankrupt 2 years ago. Wouldnt surprise me that aventurine was formed by the same guys from razorwax because of financial troubles. When you go bankrupt you cannot be the director of another company for so many years. That would make sense.
Knights who say Ni website!
Artemis I’ve also suspected this all along too, but I never spent the time to find the proof or at least substantial evidence to support my supposition, or to bring already known circumstantial or indirect things together.
It’s a fact now that Razorwax and Aventurine are owned and founded by the same people, and probably entirely self financed by them, apart from the only known investment they got from 2000 (550K $’s)
And also a fact beyond reasonable doubt now that non or very few of them had any prior experience in developing online games, and the majority of the less senior developers/ testers are mostly recruited internally from Greece, who are also likewise of limited capability.
The real reasons why they lied and decided to make a new company and move to Greece to develop Darkfall is open to speculation, apart from the obvious, like its cheaper in Greece and the business regulations are less restrictive or prior contacts with Greece etc.
I’m still not ready to declare anything definite or final about the state of Darkfall but judging by all the information I have found recently it is looking very bad.
Polar can you link to where the auditor notes "illegal loans to shareholder, the general manager" twice
I’ve never been able to find out anything about Jade El Mehdawi either, its obviously a middle eastern name, but from what country I could not say, perhaps LIBYA!, that would explain the Libyan connection.
This is the type of company Razorwax AS was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aksjeselskap
Razorwax was formed in July 2000
Aventurine was formed in October 2002
Razowax declared bankrupt in September 2006
Will Aventurine repeat the pattern and go bankrupt 6 years later in 2008?
so wait a second , Tasos's real name is Anastasias "Tasos" Flampouras ??
not Tasos flambouras?
Like someone posted in a thread about Darkfall, this type of game can not be coded with a 5 - 10 man teram. To do what they are hyping you need a vast team of experinced coders and a vast reaserach and planning team. This is beyond a joke. This type of game would need huges amounts of funding of millions upon millions of dollars. The team to make a game like this would need to be huge, and not a 5 man team in a basement.
Its quite clear now they arse setting up all these companies for tax evasion and money laundering. Why would they keep setting up these businesses? and also working on the biggest revolutionary mmo tha6t promises everything?? Its blataantly obviuos a game of this magnitude needs 24/7 work and the biggest dev team in history, along with some very very very clever planners thinkers and coders., and millions upon millions of dollars far exceeding anythign blizzard spent on wow.
Its quite obviuos these crooks dont have any of this.
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.1881.no%2FJuridisk_informasjon%2FRazorwax%2BAS_981988167%2F%3FQuery%3Drazorwax%26qt%3D8&hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=no&tl=en
Presisering: Årsoppgjøret is not made within the legal time limit. (Source: Auditor)
Presisering: Illegal loans to shareholder, the general manager, board member or other (Source: Auditor)
Presisering: Illegal loans to shareholder, the general manager, board member or other (Source: Auditor)
Check the announcements and you can see multiple auditing problems, changes of address, changes of directors, changes of board members etc., I'm no expert so I dont know if it just looks suspicious and dubious or if its actually illegal.
Yes, Anastasios Flampouras, obviously Tasos.
You can see their full and correct names on the documents I have linked too, of course I’m presuming they actually used there real full and correct names on these legal documents but decided not to for a more informal impression when promoting and marketing Darkfall.
The change between p and b might be language differences, or a typo.
Can anyone else feel Darkfall slowly twirling down the toilet?
Aventurine seems to of found the money to be clients of or still are currently clients of at least two consultancy firms one in 2006, the other at some time after 2005.
http://www.futurecc.gr/customers.htm
GROUP PAZAROPOULOY
ATHENS OIL
MA KRIS SEAT
MCCANN ERICKSON
AIR SEA LINES
AVENTURINE A.E
ICAP SA
CYBERSOFT LTD
ITMC LTD
CAN COMMUNICATIONS A.E.
MAMACAS
FRAKAPOR LOGISTICS
EXPRESS HELLENIC MARITIME
(Period 2006-2007) 100% success
Development broadband services
under the programme
«Funding for the Enterprise
Advanced Funding
Broad Band »
Seems strange that they have spent this money on consultation when at the time Darkfall was obviously no where near launch or even Beta, and they appear to be so financially limited.
And even now over a year later still no definite Beta or release date yet, of course I’m assuming this consultancy and “business plan for development of broadband services” is related to Darkfall.
Its possible that its not and maybe they have planned or started in the past or are still planning other “broad band services” like the gambling / bingo service under Razorwax or even other completely unrelated business .
Hey, what ever happened to Sigil?
It was sat on the rim for a few years first.
Expresso gave me a Hearthstone beta key.....I'm so happy