BBC: "British game developers have long been among the most influential and creative"

[ar81]

BBC: "British game developers have long been among the most influential and creative"

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7688800.stm
If I see the work of Martin Schweiger I would say the article is right.
Also I recall the Independence War series, which was also very cool...

 

[Urwumpe]

I think they are talking more about such classics as Bullfrog. The old home computer days had been full of great UK development teams.

 

[ar81]

Independence War series had very talented british people too.
It was sort of groundbreaking.

Of course the contribution of Orbiter addon makers (you included) can't be minimized either.

Even if Orbiter does not fall in the category of commercial games, this article seem to apply to Martin, IMHO.

 

[gawinnard]

IMHO, Some of the big companies are still missing out on the creativity and originality that was in abundance in the late 80's and early 90's. Small 'indie' companies like Introversion have been quiet reaping the rewards for their talents. With the Web being as it is, is there a 'need' for Large software companies?

 

[Urwumpe]

Yes, at least for game development. Making a professional game is today not smaller as making a Hollywood movie.

 

[unussapiens]

It's so true, so many great games come (or came) out of Britain, yet surprisingly few people recognise that.

I must also concur with gawinnard, as good as the big companies can be, smaller ones such as Introversion make some great games. Uplink and Darwinia are two of my favourite games, and I am eagerly awaiting the release of Multiwinia (that is going to be one damn good game).

 

[Moonwalker]

Well, my favourite game company is Blizzard (because of World of Warcraft), which is a US company. But I agree that a lot of good games come from the UK. To my taste especially Tomb Raider and Grand Theft Auto.

Making a professional game is today not smaller as making a Hollywood movie.

Which has reached an amazing level. Especially music is a great chapter beside the graphical environment. It's just amazing to take a place in some virtual worlds. But you have to be very careful partly...

 

[Jarvitä]

Regarding independent British game developers, I'd just like to list a couple of my addictions here. Orbiter obviously included.

Dwarf Fortress
Defcon

 

[Urwumpe]

Dwarf Fortress
http://www.introversion.co.uk/defcon/

Yeah, this one kills a lot of my time on the weekends. Nothing ruins your day as good as a Bronze Collossus going postal.

 

[Andy44]

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was a great game. The best thing about it was that it parodied 1980's American pop culture so well, even as it paid tribute to the coolness of the "Miami Vice" theme.

 

[ar81]

Which has reached an amazing level. Especially music is a great chapter beside the graphical environment. It's just amazing to take a place in some virtual worlds. But you have to be very careful partly...

Game music is tracked nowadays.
You may google for "Yeehun Hwang" the composer of Mechwarrior 2 games, who set a new standard for game music.

 

[Urwumpe]

I think the real revolution in game music had been Chris Hülsbeck's work for Turrican - again in the 1980s .

 

[Redburne]

Dwarf Fortress

Urist McRedburne cancels sleep: playing Dwarf Fortress.

Nevertheless, the British colonies in North America won independence around 1776, so it's not entirely fair to call Toady a British game developer.

 

[ar81]

I think the real revolution in game music had been Chris Hülsbeck's work for Turrican - again in the 1980s .

It depends on the point of view.

Mechwarrior was a game that some people bought for the music only.
It was very popular and since then many other games had movie sondtrack-like score. It set a new standard for gamers, not for the industry itself.

Chris also has such a feeling (I specially love his work for Extreme Assault) but in the gaming world (at least in this side of the world) Chris is not as famous as Hwang in the gaming community. But still he has such a great style to be considered as the real revolution of game music.

 

[Andy44]

Mechwarrior II does have very cool music, and the music tracks on the CD can be played in a normal CD player, you don't need to install the game to hear them. I used to love that game. The music reminds me of parts of the movie Blackhawk Down.

 

[Urwumpe]

The same with the menu screen music of Civilization IV. I had left the menu running for a while only to hear the music for a while, until I found out that the composer, Christopher Tin, also had the music as MP3 on his homepage (now you need to register for his mailing list, maybe a minor price, he is really a good composer).

 

[ar81]

A german game which music I enjoyed a lot was X-Beyond the frontier.
Very nice game, the feeling was not the conventional navy-fighter-pilot Wing Commander style game.

 

[Urwumpe]

Damn, I did not even know that Egosoft was a German company, I thought it was Canadian. :lol:

 

[ar81]

Damn, I did not even know that Egosoft was a German company, I thought it was Canadian. :lol:

Well, I had the wrong idea then.
I do not know where I got that idea...
I had it for years... probably it came from twilight zone.

 

[Urwumpe]

No, you are right, Egosoft is a German company, I did not know it is from here.