Coop

[Jetsetlemming]

Why? System Shock 2, the last great coop game had it patched in because people asked for it. Why can't that be done today, still? Coop is wanted on many, many g ames but it's never added on some basis that it's "Too hard". True, I can see it being tough with Stalker for example but that doesn't excuse the other less complex games. Is it just plan lazyness on developers behalf or the Publishers not allowing them time to add it in as they don't see it as a feasible addition with their budget?

Implementing COOP to an existing game is by no means an easy task, even with fully working SP, MP and splitscreen already! There is an a lot more coding to be done than you might expect. I know this as I experienced it firsthand with Kane & Lynch, which I worked on the DLC for. COOP was a highly requested feature, but it did not get in as it would probably have doubled the dev time on the patch/DLC.

Think of e.g. the thousands of characters running around on some K&L levels, how would you synchronize those over network? This is just not possible without insane amounts of bandwidth.

Kane and Lynch didn't have coop? I thought that was pretty much the whole point.

As Zacker said Coop Mode is very hard to add. If there's a trigger on a level that is checking a distance between player and some other thing, what to do when there's two players. Yes - check distance for both of them. That's x2 of work to do. Another example is splitscreen. When engine works fine on one screen there might be problem rendering another field of view of second player.

Games like GOW was made for Coop, levels where planned great just to have fun on two player coop. In open space levels there's a lot of problems with setting position of player and good action spawning that won't look stupid so first of all: games with engine that can support it and games that are planned to be coop might give a good gameplay

No coop in Dead Island, then?

[mjens]

Thats weird, I saw a Coop Mode in K&L on X360...

Dead Island is a new wave in our technology (wide opened spaces, many enemies on screen) so it is very possible that also Coop Mode will be implemented. I'm not saying "Yes, there will be Coop" but DI is still in development and now there's no bigger problems with planning that mode. Problem might be found when we'll be out of time to do that...

[madgernader]

...I know this as I experienced it firsthand with Kane & Lynch, which I worked on the DLC for.

Kane and Lynch didn't have coop? I thought that was pretty much the whole point.

The main game had coop, and it was great fun, but from the sound of it, Zacker means the DLC that came out for the game contained levels/gameplay that didn't include it (I'm not sure, I haven't checked it out...)

[Skjalg]

I think the excuse not to bring coop in because its so hard to add later when you've finished the SP part is wrong, since you obviously should've made the game with coop in mind from the beginning... Complaining afterwards that it's too hard to add in means you've failed, since it should've been there from the start.

Just my 2 cents^^ Always design a game with coop in mind from the very start, and gamers will be happier : -)