Alien RPG - Cancelation Confirmation

[Dhruin]

GameBanshee has noticed an updated LinkedIn profile for (now) ex-Obsidian designer on the Alien RPG, David Kondor. Here's a snip with David clearly stating "canceled":

Designer for canceled third-person action Aliens RPG (Xbox 360, PS3, & PC)

-- Responsible for the planning, layout, setup, and tuning of multiple large areas including a Vertical Slice
-- Worked directly with a team of Animators, Artists, Sound Designers, and Writers to ensure consistent area vision and to maintain fun gameplay, visual storytelling, and the atmosphere of the Aliens universe
-- Worked with other Designers to contribute to and improve on the vision of game
-- Designed, Scripted and Balanced Major Combat Encounters and Boss Battles
-- Designed, Implemented, and Iterated on Missions and Scripted Scenes
-- Created and Iterated on initial Area layouts using XSI
-- Worked with programmers to develop & improve on a new In-House Game Engine & Tools

More information.

 

[rune_74]

I don't know but vertical slice sounds cool...I wonder if they had taken a spaceship and basically cut it down the side so you see different levels at ones....as as sidescroller...

 

[JDR13]

I wonder if there's any news about Aliens:Colonial Marines, the squad based FPS by Gearbox Software. I really hope that one doesn't get canceled as well.

 

[DArtagnan]

I expected this

 

[Explodin' Gobbo]

It looked really promising

 

[KasperFauerby]

I don't know but vertical slice sounds cool...I wonder if they had taken a spaceship and basically cut it down the side so you see different levels at ones....as as sidescroller...

He heh.. not quite

"Vertical Slice" is a term commonly used in game development. It means creating a short, but fully featured (in theory), section of the game - with a fair amount of feature polish, graphics polish etc. A slice of the full game you could say. The VS is often used to sell the rest of the project (so one could speculate about the quality of the VS for this particular game..)

 

[txa1265]

Oh well, it is too bad, but we all sort of knew it by now ...

 

[rune_74]

He heh.. not quite

"Vertical Slice" is a term commonly used in game development. It means creating a short, but fully featured (in theory), section of the game - with a fair amount of feature polish, graphics polish etc. A slice of the full game you could say. The VS is often used to sell the rest of the project (so one could speculate about the quality of the VS for this particular game..)

Damn I knew it was too be good to be what I thought it was...(what amouthful)

 

[doctor_kaz]

Disappointing, but not surprising. The game might have been good, but the Alien franchise (as it was from the first three movies) is essentially dead.

 

[Squeek]

True, and boy do I feel old realizing that. Alien goes all the way back to my first year in college, iirc.

Sigourney Weaver was a total hottie, running around in those little panties. She was young and someone I'd never heard of before. Ripley seemed like a good role for Jane Fonda, but I figured she was probably a little too old for it.

Time just keeps marching on, doesn't it?

 

[rune_74]

And now...we don;t get to see herr unning around in a game like that ...damn it!

 

[xSamhainx]

Yeah, Alien was definitely a great sci fi horror film, and ol Sigourney was great in her role. One of my favorite games, one I played to the end several times was SNES "Alien3". I could play that one again today easily, just wathcing the video's got me wanting to play it again!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wZN7HatB-w

http://www.vgchartz.com/games/game.php?id=13135

 

[blatantninja]

This is pretty much why I wish all game studios would STFU about projects until they are definitely going forward, past the point of no return. I'm sick of getting my hopes up on a title, maybe seeing a demo, read some developer logs, then POOF it's canceled.

I remember when they canceled Ultima X Odyssey. After seeing it featured in some game rag, I went to the website, viewed the demo video, read some of the logs and was pretty excited. It looked pretty far into development, then it was gone.

 

[PatrickWeekes]

This is pretty much why I wish all game studios would STFU about projects until they are definitely going forward, past the point of no return. I'm sick of getting my hopes up on a title, maybe seeing a demo, read some developer logs, then POOF it's canceled.

I remember when they canceled Ultima X Odyssey. After seeing it featured in some game rag, I went to the website, viewed the demo video, read some of the logs and was pretty excited. It looked pretty far into development, then it was gone.

...

As somebody who's had a project canceled on him, I'm sure they're at least as disappointed as you are.

I'm sad. I'm still looking forward to Alpha Protocol, but there aren't enough companies out there that do conversations the way BioWare and Obsidian do. Losing a potential game, even one in an IP I don't really care about (don't hate it, don't love it), is a bummer. Hope the laid off folks find work elsewhere quickly.

And yeah, vertical slices can be good or bad, depending on your point of view. A vertical slice forces you to prove that you can get stuff done and polished, and that it can all come together. Too often, though, you get there by faking things in places where you're sure you'll get the real functionality soon enough. I'm sure everybody here can point to a few lovely examples of game demos with GUIs or features that bore little to no resemblance to the final product. Vertical slices (which often become parts of demos, since the work is already done) are bad in that way.

 

[blatantninja]

...

As somebody who's had a project canceled on him, I'm sure they're at least as disappointed as you are.

Ohh I'm sure. I'm just getting out my selfish-whiney-game-player rant!

 

[Squeek]

A vertical slice forces you to prove that you can get stuff done and polished, and that it can all come together. Too often, though, you get there by faking things in places where you're sure you'll get the real functionality soon enough.

I decided to delete this (it was a joke).

 

[rune_74]

heh squeek I was like what@! then I thought ...awesome...

 

[Squeek]

heh squeek I was like what@! then I thought ...awesome...

Ooooooh!! I spoke without thinking! Oops! Better delete that!

I think I may have revealed too much about my true character there!

 

[Avantenor]

I'm sad. I'm still looking forward to Alpha Protocol, but there aren't enough companies out there that do conversations the way BioWare and Obsidian do. Losing a potential game, even one in an IP I don't really care about (don't hate it, don't love it), is a bummer. Hope the laid off folks find work elsewhere quickly.

Sad but true.
'though I think the Alien franchise is still a powerfull licence. I think there still are many fans of the Alien concept out there. The creature design and the world of the Alien is simply amazing. Alien is an evergreen, and with another AvP movie roumored to be in production, there also could have been synergy effects.

I was really thrilled by the original announcement. It's really a shame that Sega stopped production of the game. I'm sure Alien offers room for an interesting RPG game. Maybe a little bit more actiondriven, but at least as much room as for Mass Effect.

 

[txa1265]

As somebody who's had a project canceled on him, I'm sure they're at least as disappointed as you are.

Very much agree - many of us (older) professionals who work on large projects that have been canceled in the past can certainly identify with the rough feelings these things cause ...