Jim Bowers
1st August 2003, 02:08 PM
Hello there,
I only just discovered this forum, and was amazed at the amount of interest still going on in Wipeout :) Nick, being a top fella, has answered sooooo many questions. So, I thought I'd add my own little contribution.
Before I even got into the videogames industry (in fact, before seriously touching a computer), I came up with a boardgame/roleplaying game called 'Matrix Marauders'. It was a hex based game with one-man battlecraft flying and fighting in an arena. My mates liked it, and it went nowhere lol. :)
A few years later there was the chance to make it into a videogame after I had been working at Psygnosis for a while. These were the old days, and even with a hugely detailed document, the technology just wasn't up to it. No-one liked it, and it went nowhere lol. :D
Anyway, Playstation itself was in development (size of a tower workstation), nobody knew what it could really do except push lots of polygons, and the pressure was on to create a non-ported original game for its release (ie, not a conversion of Ridge Racer, etc). I'd recently seen Top Gun and Days Of Thunder (sorry to shatter any illusions) and thought "Hmmm, racing and jetfighters = speed + combat." So, Nick (being an incredibly talented geezer) and I got incredibly drunk on a regular basis (don't do that if you're under 18, or 21 in certain states in the US! Or at all in some parts of the world!) , at the Shrew in Oxton, and the ball was rolling. One problem; How many polys can this thing draw per second, we aren't sure. Solution; Stick the track in a trough, and you don't have to draw the entire landscape, and make the craft flat and pointy so they're low-res models (nb: this had also applied to Matrix marauders, but with more drastic results lol). In other words, it was all practical, and necessity was the mother of this invention.
Early Playstation development at Psygnosis was part of a special projects group, and the project was proposed. Two guys respectively led the push for the game there, Dave Worrell, and Dom Mallinson. We also dangled the carrot of putting product placement in the game to help pay for its development, but this initially went nowhere.
So, more drinking and brainstorming. Then, hungover recaps the next day :oops: Nick and others really really pushed for the idea of using techno for the soundtrack. This was a breath of fresh air, and was popular with the team. I seem to remember, though, it took a while for the other departments to get on board with the idea. However, there were some championing it, and it made it into the game (Nick, if you read this, did the US actually replace with rock tracks? - techno'll never sell in the States, blah blah).
A small team (compared with the huge numbers today) of talent was assembled, and the game went into production. At this point the movie Hackers came along. A guy at Sony (our parent company), Phil harrison, had an opportunity to place a game in a movie, and he got in touch. Nick came up with great ideas for the track and gameplay, which also served as a prototype for ideas in the game. Lee Carus and Neil Thompson took care of the intro and gamescore bits (mainly in their own time); Digby Rogers took care of the HUD animation (again, out of hours); and Andy Yelland was a hero with technical support and general support of the 'little' project. In the end, Andy and I worked 5 days straight virtually without sleep to beat the deadline :o In that last week, I remember making 3.00 a.m. phonecalls to Lee and Neil (thier better halves were not at all impressed I reckon) begging them to come in, as although the typing was one-fingered and correct, the result on screen was just nonsense (keyboard - abcdefg; result - 8mfoal'4/) :o :o they were absolute stars, and acted as pairs of hands. Mega, to quote one of our ex-bosses.
So, after Hackers, I moved on to Krazy Ivan fmv, my involvement with the game virtually disappeared ,and it was left to the team. All I did was scream at other departments when they weren't supporting the project enough :evil: Keith Hopwood initiated the involvement of Designer's Republic (very daring in those days), Sue Campbell did a cracking job with the marketing of the game (an uphill struggle I do believe).
As for the development team, I don't think I've seen a group of people work quite so hard in my entire life. When I gave a presentation at a SIGGRAPH user group meeting, I was asked "How long did it take to develop the game?" I don't think anyone believed it when I replied "From the production greenlight button being pressed, around 8 and a half months." Try that these days LOL. On release, I was told that WipeOut was the biggest moneyspinner for the company from an internally developed game (the big money tended to go to 3rd Parties who get royalties on their creation - not the case with internal projects. As for the team, most eventually moved on to other places, some within Sony, most outside. I quit, went back to Psygnosis and worked on the sequel FMV as well as other stuff, quit again.
To answer other questions I've seen on the Forum;
I'm afraid I don't have any of the original visuals, except copies of the concepts for Wipeout2097, everything else must reside somewhere in the dusty attics of Liverpool.
Yes Nick, I've gone into digital matte painting and 3D for films, self-employed, after working for a VFX house in London. Sorry I lost touch with you guys, but it's been a bit frantic :cry: If you go to www.imdb.com and search for my name you'll see what I've worked on.
The model was pretty beatup last time I saw it. It also got a tad melted by the studio lights when it was photographed for publicity purposes :x
My favourite quote from the development of the game:
"We're part of Sony, George Michael's a Sony artist. He could go on the soundtrack." anon (wasn't funny at the time)
Biggest regret:
The Prodigy didn't do a cover of the famous 'Wipeout' song. Animal from the Muppets did a great one, though.
Anyways, sorry if this was a very long post, but I hoped it expanded a bit on what the others have said so far.
Did I say 'little' contribution?
Jim.
PS, After leaving Psygnosis I didn't play games for years. But MOHAA online rocks - addicted! How things have changed! 8) And when I first started playing online, I thought LOL meant 'Loads Of Love' LOL and I'm a massive camper, and I don't care - it's a skillful art
I only just discovered this forum, and was amazed at the amount of interest still going on in Wipeout :) Nick, being a top fella, has answered sooooo many questions. So, I thought I'd add my own little contribution.
Before I even got into the videogames industry (in fact, before seriously touching a computer), I came up with a boardgame/roleplaying game called 'Matrix Marauders'. It was a hex based game with one-man battlecraft flying and fighting in an arena. My mates liked it, and it went nowhere lol. :)
A few years later there was the chance to make it into a videogame after I had been working at Psygnosis for a while. These were the old days, and even with a hugely detailed document, the technology just wasn't up to it. No-one liked it, and it went nowhere lol. :D
Anyway, Playstation itself was in development (size of a tower workstation), nobody knew what it could really do except push lots of polygons, and the pressure was on to create a non-ported original game for its release (ie, not a conversion of Ridge Racer, etc). I'd recently seen Top Gun and Days Of Thunder (sorry to shatter any illusions) and thought "Hmmm, racing and jetfighters = speed + combat." So, Nick (being an incredibly talented geezer) and I got incredibly drunk on a regular basis (don't do that if you're under 18, or 21 in certain states in the US! Or at all in some parts of the world!) , at the Shrew in Oxton, and the ball was rolling. One problem; How many polys can this thing draw per second, we aren't sure. Solution; Stick the track in a trough, and you don't have to draw the entire landscape, and make the craft flat and pointy so they're low-res models (nb: this had also applied to Matrix marauders, but with more drastic results lol). In other words, it was all practical, and necessity was the mother of this invention.
Early Playstation development at Psygnosis was part of a special projects group, and the project was proposed. Two guys respectively led the push for the game there, Dave Worrell, and Dom Mallinson. We also dangled the carrot of putting product placement in the game to help pay for its development, but this initially went nowhere.
So, more drinking and brainstorming. Then, hungover recaps the next day :oops: Nick and others really really pushed for the idea of using techno for the soundtrack. This was a breath of fresh air, and was popular with the team. I seem to remember, though, it took a while for the other departments to get on board with the idea. However, there were some championing it, and it made it into the game (Nick, if you read this, did the US actually replace with rock tracks? - techno'll never sell in the States, blah blah).
A small team (compared with the huge numbers today) of talent was assembled, and the game went into production. At this point the movie Hackers came along. A guy at Sony (our parent company), Phil harrison, had an opportunity to place a game in a movie, and he got in touch. Nick came up with great ideas for the track and gameplay, which also served as a prototype for ideas in the game. Lee Carus and Neil Thompson took care of the intro and gamescore bits (mainly in their own time); Digby Rogers took care of the HUD animation (again, out of hours); and Andy Yelland was a hero with technical support and general support of the 'little' project. In the end, Andy and I worked 5 days straight virtually without sleep to beat the deadline :o In that last week, I remember making 3.00 a.m. phonecalls to Lee and Neil (thier better halves were not at all impressed I reckon) begging them to come in, as although the typing was one-fingered and correct, the result on screen was just nonsense (keyboard - abcdefg; result - 8mfoal'4/) :o :o they were absolute stars, and acted as pairs of hands. Mega, to quote one of our ex-bosses.
So, after Hackers, I moved on to Krazy Ivan fmv, my involvement with the game virtually disappeared ,and it was left to the team. All I did was scream at other departments when they weren't supporting the project enough :evil: Keith Hopwood initiated the involvement of Designer's Republic (very daring in those days), Sue Campbell did a cracking job with the marketing of the game (an uphill struggle I do believe).
As for the development team, I don't think I've seen a group of people work quite so hard in my entire life. When I gave a presentation at a SIGGRAPH user group meeting, I was asked "How long did it take to develop the game?" I don't think anyone believed it when I replied "From the production greenlight button being pressed, around 8 and a half months." Try that these days LOL. On release, I was told that WipeOut was the biggest moneyspinner for the company from an internally developed game (the big money tended to go to 3rd Parties who get royalties on their creation - not the case with internal projects. As for the team, most eventually moved on to other places, some within Sony, most outside. I quit, went back to Psygnosis and worked on the sequel FMV as well as other stuff, quit again.
To answer other questions I've seen on the Forum;
I'm afraid I don't have any of the original visuals, except copies of the concepts for Wipeout2097, everything else must reside somewhere in the dusty attics of Liverpool.
Yes Nick, I've gone into digital matte painting and 3D for films, self-employed, after working for a VFX house in London. Sorry I lost touch with you guys, but it's been a bit frantic :cry: If you go to www.imdb.com and search for my name you'll see what I've worked on.
The model was pretty beatup last time I saw it. It also got a tad melted by the studio lights when it was photographed for publicity purposes :x
My favourite quote from the development of the game:
"We're part of Sony, George Michael's a Sony artist. He could go on the soundtrack." anon (wasn't funny at the time)
Biggest regret:
The Prodigy didn't do a cover of the famous 'Wipeout' song. Animal from the Muppets did a great one, though.
Anyways, sorry if this was a very long post, but I hoped it expanded a bit on what the others have said so far.
Did I say 'little' contribution?
Jim.
PS, After leaving Psygnosis I didn't play games for years. But MOHAA online rocks - addicted! How things have changed! 8) And when I first started playing online, I thought LOL meant 'Loads Of Love' LOL and I'm a massive camper, and I don't care - it's a skillful art