Posts by kleinluka

i still don't see how this compares to carmack sorry..

Quote from Minotauro

I wonder why Levelord didn't have any problems leaving 3d realms if they were so abusive with their contracts....

Because he's levelord.

But it wasn't enough to get him picked up again ?

I'm not bitter I just don't get why I should feel sorry for him because he signed a non-compete and is now regretting it or why I should blame 3DR for his situation. It's a shame yeah, but also signing a non-compete doesn't mean you can't do your own work in your spare time so why didn't he cook up this super amazing engine you are talking about at home in his 3 years off? It seems like he just disappeared. Surely if he was half as great as you're making him sound he could have done SOMETHING that would have impressed people.

Quote from Jetsetlemming

Dude Silverman joined 3DRealms as a teenager as his one and only game development job, and he wasn't seeking it out either. He saw how neat Wolfenstein 3d was as a kid and tried to recreate it on his own with Ken's Labyrinth, sent a floppy of it to ID/Apogee/Epic Megagames, and he ended up getting head-hunted by that circle of Texas developers. He started work on the Build engine when he was only 18. I doubt he could read a single sentence of the contract he was handed, and didn't care because surely these nice cool game development guys wouldn't screw him over!

LOL are you for real? Seriously. Drop the fanboy crap. I'm sure he was a good programmer and the BUILD engine is legendary but to say that "ohhh he was only 18 he couldnt read this contract".... come on dude, seriously. I was 18 when I got my first game dev job and was over the moon about it. That doesn't mean my brain stopped working and I didn't know what I was getting myself into. When you're 18 and you sign a contract with a 3 year non-compete clause you accept the risk that it could screw you over if something happened to the company/project. You accept it by signing it. This is the real world, the games biz was a business even back then. We all deal with these contracts and we all get screwed over by them in one way or an other.

Quote from Jetsetlemming

That put him (a guy people referred to at the time as "John Carmack's biggest rival") pretty much permanently out of the game industry.

As HP said, welcome to the real world. If you put your signature on something you are responsible.

Quote from Jetsetlemming

Hearsay

nice source of information.

I haven't heard anything like it and I honestly don't care. Go ask the 1000 laid off EA employees if they got their royalty checks.

Quote from Furyo

On the subject of non compete contracts, us low level devs would never have to sign one

Did Ubi finally take them off their contracts for "regular" employees? I know I signed one but I also knew they didn't really enforce them for artists/designer type employees.

Quote from Jetsetlemming

Like what? I can't imagine what sort of information could be enough to "destroy the next few years of a company". There's a ton of secrecy about stuff in games, and I've never really "gotten" it.

Seems to me like a non-compete is less about keeping secrets and more about "If I can't have it, nobody can!"

Well he was the CEO of Ubisoft Montreal, which is one of the (the?) most largest production studios in the world. He had access to the entire Ubisoft strategy for the next few years at least, titles in production, planned projects, financial information and who knows what else... It's quite normal for CEO types to sign non-competes but as Furyo said it doesn't really matter for them if they can't work for 1 year because the money they got for signing it pays a years worth of CEO-level salary anyway...

Why someone would ever sign a non-compete clause that lasts a FEW YEARS, fully being aware of the risks it poses on your career is beyond me so I don't feel sorry for him for that either. I would never sign such a thing, it's a stupid thing to do. And honestly, he's not the only one who doesn't receive royalties like they should. I worked on Rainbow Six Vegas for over 2 years, I was the first production artist on the project, I left Ubisoft and never received a royalty check from them. Do you hear me bitching about it in public? NO. Because I left on my own terms and so did he. Most companies don't pay you royalties when you leave, it's not something that's particular to Ken Silverman or 3DRealms. At least he got paid until 2003. That's already more than 90% of us would ever see.

Quote from Gloglebag

That seems really uncharacteristic of 3drealms, in this interview he is really happy about his time there. It states he shares he rights to the build engine. That he left on his own to go study. http://www.3drealms.com/news/2006/02/th ... acy_8.html

Yeah maybe, but this is an interview posted on the 3DRealms site so obviously they wouldn't publish anything that said "LOL THEY SCREWED ME OVER 3D REALMS SUCKS"....

Uh yes but those games all came out like 10 years ago so if he never received royalties for them then why the hell did he stay at 3DRealms? Seems kind of weird...

royalties for what?

Source: http://www.gamebizblog.com/gamebizblog/ ... d-off.html

Nearly 8,500 games industry workers have lost their jobs since July 2008, says analyst Wanda Meloni. Let us once again reiterate: The games industry is not immune to the recession.

When times are tough, corporations start cutting their work force. When it comes to the bottom line, the games industry behaves no differently than any other. By M2 analyst Wanda Meloni's count, 8,450 game makers have been laid off since July 2008. An overwhelming 75 percent of job reductions happened in North America. In other words, 12 percent of the US games industry is out of work.

There have also been at least 13 studio closings, she notes in her latest briefing. Victims include the likes of 3D Realms, Ensemble, and Microsoft's ACES. Others are on life support.

The good news: There is a new spirit of entrepreneurialism is rising from the ashes of these former jobs and companies, notes Meloni.

Industry veterans are seizing upon new business models and new publishing platforms. Digital distribution has broken down publishing barriers, allowing creators to take risks that companies like Electronic Arts and Activision are incapable of taking. Now is the era of free-to-play browser games, server-based distribution, Facebook, and the iPhone. Now is the time for game makers to unleash their creativity.

After all, if Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel can create the hit Wii game World of Goo with just two people, imagine what teams of industry veterans could accomplish when they strike out on their own.

GO TAKE TWO!!!!!

cause then the forum would be all stickies

that last thread was from over 6 months ago so I think a new thread isn't going to piss on anyone's parade?

Not much to say really, just head on over to http://www.thief4.com/ for the news

Eidos-Montréal is excited to unveil, our previously secret second title in development at the studio, as Thief 4, the next instalment in the legendary series!

Monday, May 11, 2009 - Montreal

"Were in the early development stages for Thief 4, but this is an incredibly ambitious project and a very exciting one. It's too early for us to offer any specific game details, right now we are focused on recruiting the very best talent to join the core team at the studio and help us make, what we believe will be one of the most exciting games on the market."

Stephane D'Astous - General Manager

http://www.thief4.com

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and plane tickets to vancouver

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Quote from dux

Those shots are nice but could be so much better

well duke was never about good graphics anyway... i think playing these maps would have been fun (if the game had actually been released lol)

some more leaked screenshots:

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Quote from JohnC

Thus far it sounds like nobody screwed up, just Take 2 screwing them on funding.

Are you for real? How can you say that after 10+ years of development "nobody screwed up" and that it was just the publishers fault for not giving them more money (so that they can do jack shit with it for an other 5-10 years). Unfortunately you survive in this industry by releasing titles, not by not releasing titles. It's sad that the people that worked there are out of a job now but surely if they are good artists/programmers/designers then it shouldn't take them long to find new jobs.

Quote from Furyo

How cool ! I had no idea you were trying to get in ! What project are you gonna be working on? Let me know when you arrive, we'll crash Klein's place for a beer or ten

Uh yeahhh okay lol Congrats on the job! Time to learn french

4:1, maybe he's talking about salaries :roll: