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Shadowbane: New Home: Stray Bullet Games
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
Sean "Ashen Temper" Dahlberg has updated his personal webpage with an entry that explains the transition of the MMORPG, Shadowbane, from the closed Wolfpack Studios to the newly created Stray Bullet Games, Shadowbane's new home. This explains why Shadowbane did not die on May 15th, as many had speculated:
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What a few weeks it has been! Since my initial trip on a job interview in late April, everything has become a blur so much that I have a ton of catching up to do on my very own forums! A few days after getting back to Austin from there, it seems like I was back on a plane and this time headed for E3 2006 (which I definitely need to do a write up about still). Had a great time there and actually got about half the things accomplished I set out to (which is good for E3). I headed back to Austin and wait the dreaded May 15th; the last day of Wolfpack Studios. I showed up early in the morning as I usually do, and sat down at my desk. Sitting there, though, I really was unsure what to do and, from the look of things, most others did not either. Our last deadline was upon us and there were no future ones. Well, the day dredged on as employees were brought into the HR office and given their walking papers. Slowly but surely, the Pack started to dwindle. You would think that would be the end but it wasnt. From the ashes of Wolfpack Studios, a new company has formed called Stray Bullet Games (SBG). Unlike Wolfpack, SBG is not a Ubisoft company. Instead it is a Third-Party Development Studio. This basically means the studio is, technically, answerable to itself. I say technically because, obviously if a studio undertakes a contract from a publisher, that publisher will be making payments and will garner them at least some say in the project they are contracting for. Which brings us to Shadowbane. Ubisoft has contracted Stray Bullet Games to keep Shadowbane alive and well. Since SBG is not a Ubisoft company, things will be a little different than it was with Wolfpack Studios. For the most part, these changes will be transparent to players. Is Shadowbane the only thing Stray Bullet Games is working on? At this point I cannot go into much detail but there are other things in the works. Stray Bullet Games definitely does not plan on being a one-trick pony. And, of course, we have the goal of designing and crafting our very own next-generation MMO. What will it be? Well, it is much too early to say and it is something we are discussing internally as to what exactly we want to do. I will be blunt and say we will not be doing Shadowbane 2. The publishing and intellectual rights are not owned by Stray Bullet Games and we will, more than likely, make an original title. With that said, we plan on doing what we do best so it wouldnt be unthought-of to expect player-vs.-player and strategic combat. And while the implementation and specifics may differ, the aspects I talk about in my (crazy) sandbox idea Dominion, such as an in-depth political system, territorial and economic control systems, and character building with meaning are echoed by everyone at Stray Bullet Games. While Stray Bullet Games might be considered by some as a new start-up company, it is not really. In fact, Stray Bullet Games picked up most of the key personnel from Wolfpack Studios. Frank Lucero, the General Manager and founder of Stray Bullet Games (not to be confused with the Latino Comedian), has been in the gaming industry for over fifteen years. Most other members of the company are seasoned industry veterans, not even including their time in Wolfpack Studios, such as Ala Diaz, Clay Nazgul Towery, George Ruof, Ivan Enriquez, Mike Ramsie Madden, and Ranjeet Singhal. And we must not forget our loremaster Sam Meridian Johnson. With this much experience and passion under one roof, not even the sky is the limit! Stay tuned for the new website (for Stray Bullet Games) which will contain much more information and official press releases. |
For more of Sean's site, click here.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
*dances around Ashen Temper*
The definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.
Woohoo!! Good Luck SBG! With Meridian on board, I will be following your development of the next MMORPG. I loved the deep lore in Shadowbane and look for even better in your next venture. Good to hear you're still alive and kicking.
The Wolfpack Team that has been around since the
acquisition (by Ubisoft well after launching the product), while
retaining some of the original members (such as myself, Meridian, and
Nazgul) was mainly made up of individuals with previous game and MMO
development experience. Most of them now work at Stray Bullet Games.
Will SBG amount to anything? Obviously only time will tell but
looking at the drive, experience, and talent in the company, I would
say it's highly likely. As I pointed out, this isn't a "green" team,
this is a highly seasoned team with the contacts and experience needed
to create a game.
Sean "Ashen Temper" Dahlberg
http://www.seandahlberg.com/
Java is a great program, but not for games....its not a fast enough programming language to handle such complex games.......thats why it isn't used so widely, and thats why C++ is used more widely to create games. I hope that the devs of SBG have accepted the fact that Java is not a suitable language for MMOs especially since there is so much going on.
If you do continue to use Java instead of changing to a more smooth running programming language like C++, you will just encounter the same problems over again. I hope to see SBG accepted this fact and will use C++ instead of Java.
Have to put something up!