Development Myth II: Soulblighter

1 development

1.1 delays
1.2 uninstall bug
1.3 fear , loathing
1.4 technology
1.5 later releases

development

bungie conceived of soulblighter prior release of fallen lords in 1997, thing prevent them making being if fallen lords commercial failure. however, when original game proved success, becoming bungie s biggest selling game far, sequel went development. 1 of main goals sequel include numerous gameplay aspects , game mechanics had wanted feature in fallen lords, had been unable implement due time constraints. alex seropian, co-founder of bungie, explains there still things @ end of myth wanted do, ran out of time. myth terrific product, knew lot better. of initial planning soulblighter, seropain states

we had lot of specific design goals myth ii. part of things enhancements engine gameplay. there things in gameplay , artificial intelligence made original annoyingly difficult, , of things wanted enhance. in addition that, decided touch every facet of game. wanted make music , sound better, graphics - retouched every area of myth gaming experience.

new soulblighter moving 3d models within gaming world, none of bungie staff had ever created before. example, opening level features functional windmill, , later level features drawbridge closes level begins, , player must lower army can gain access castle. although original game featured same kind of 3d polygonal models, none of them moved, , implementing feature proved 1 of biggest challenges team encountered in making game. challenge involved not seen in first game; level set indoors. level, set in large castle, ai had rewritten 2 enemy units right beside 1 not able see each other because of wall between them. previously, 2 units standing beside 1 automatically attack. writing new code ai scripting language proved difficult programmers.

the team approached cutscenes differently. in fallen lords, cutscenes had been created american animation studio, had received mixed response both developers , fans of game, feeling felt cartoony, , tonally disconnected rest of game. team wanted ensure not repeated in soulblighter. seropian explains,

myth has different style it, classic kind of look, , thought rendered animation wouldn t it, went cel animation. people liked it, people didn t, , in final analysis decided looked little more cartoon-like wanted. myth ii decided go japanese company , have more of anime style, more of cutting-edge, rougher-edge , feel animation.

in terms of game s graphics, fallen lords, each level in soulblighter constructed on polygonal mesh. however, mesh used 4 times finer in original, , hence graphics more detailed , smoother. first game, although game world 3d, characters populating each level 2d sprites. however, sprites in soulblighter have many more frames of animation in fallen lords, , move more smoothly. explaining why team stuck using 2d sprites in 3d terrain, producer tuncer deniz states,

it s performance issue. reason went sprites characters because in myth can have 1 hundred units on screen @ same time, , if polygonal models, fastest home computers wouldn t able play game.

delays

originally scheduled north american release on november 1, 1998, bungie unable have game ready in time. according tuncer deniz, initial release date missed because of time frame given game, small opposed major titles. added many new things - ends extending development cycle. team set release date prior christmas, meaning game need go gold first week of december.

by november 13, bungie still writing code individual levels, although lead programmer jason regier felt seemed there end in sight. on november 21, team held meeting, discussing whether continue aim christmas deadline, or work incorporate of still-evolving gameplay ideas , fix every bug, mean missing deadline. deniz argued team should continue develop gameplay , fix bugs, need accept not every detail wanted add going included. on november 22, diane donohue (director of operations) , doug zartman (director of public relations) sent out one-hundred-and-forty copies of game game reviewers across north america. staff @ bungie had become stretched trying finish game on time donohue , zartman hand inking game huge blurb, , pressing them onto boxes themselves.

on november 24, team decided aim december 13 finish, game on shelves between christmas , new year. zartman explains s not catastrophic sounds. second biggest time buy games after christmas. gamers taking game didn t want , getting game did want - , ve got holiday money. december 7, entire bungie staff either playtesting game or fixing bugs. on december 10, game went gold, zartman sending out email gaming websites;

bungie software tiredly happily announces myth ii: soulblighter, sequel 1997 s seminal 3d strategy title myth: fallen lords, has gone replication. read this, plant somewhere in atlanta replicating , boxing hundreds of thousands of copies , preparing ship them far corners of north america. elsewhere in world, gt interactive, pacific software publishing , other publishing partners doing same...this sequel has been turned in mere 7 months.

the game made store shelves on december 28.

uninstall bug

on december 28, day game shipped stores, bungie s head-office contacted japanese publisher, informed them woman working on asian translation of game had discovered major bug in windows version. had installed game in root directory of hard drive, , used uninstall program uninstall it. game uninstalled, of contents of hard drive erased. jason jones attempted replicate problem, discovering wrong, , figuring out how correct faulty code. however, 200,000 copies of game in transit major retail stores across north america. jones, alex seropian, doug zartman, diane donohue, , david joost (sales , marketing director) convened meeting decide do. team had 2 choices. on 1 hand, nothing, , quietly fix bug in patch made available download on website. in favor of course of action, argued installing game root directory of hard drive unusual thing do, there little chance of repeating, , unlikely ever encounter bug. other option publicly announce problem , recall game. did. according jones,

the thing made decision easy if ship game anyway , try fix problem later, people gonna screwed. , wrong. might not have been many people - maybe 1 or two. have bothered rest of our lives. maybe not - maybe 2 years. d sitting around today: damn, wonder when next person s gonna call? clear there 1 decision led down road of eternal damnation. other spend lot of money , right thing - , never make same mistake again.

bungie recalled every shipped unit of game, decision cost them $800,000 in expenses , fines retailers missing release deadline. meanwhile, donohue called bungie factory in atlanta , told production managers stop printing copies of game, , hold shipments hadn t gone out, whilst joost began calling stores still awaiting shipments, telling them refuse orders arrived. units in transit began arrive @ factory, each individual 1 had repackaged hand. joost explains,

you open carton, box each individual unit, take out jewel case, unwrap shrink wrap, take out old cd , destroy it, put in new cd, re-shrink-wrap jewel case, repack in box, put on new upc label electronically read version 1.1, , put red sticker on box saying new updated version 1.1.

by december 30, v1.1 on way stores. bungie issued statement on website telling players had managed copy of v1.0 uninstall game manually dragging game s folder recycle bin. made v1.1 patch available download. gaming press lauded bungie s handling of situation, praising decision take financial hit , recall game.

fear , loathing

screenshot blue & grey, american civil war era total conversion, created community using fear , loathing tools.

with release of soulblighter, bungie included 2 programming tools called fear , loathing , allowed players create new units , maps. both fallen lords , soulblighter had been created using 4 tools developed bungie themselves; tag editor edited constants stored in cross-platform data files; extractor handled 2d sprites , sequencing of animations; loathing acted map editor; , fear dealt 3d polygonal models such houses, pillars, , walls. speaking of fear , loathing, fallen lords s producer , programmer jason jones explains, loathing map editor myth. import map it, change heights, , place units on map in loathing. fear takes care of models; used import 3d rendered models myth.

loathing built around myth engine , allowed team modify 3d landscape, apply lighting, determine terrain type, script ai, , position structures, scenery, , enemies. 3d models imported game using fear. bungie encouraged creativity of fan base in using these tools. example, in april 1999, issued press release regarding world war ii total conversion myth ii: recon, saying kind of plug-in myth ii tools intended inspire, , excellent sign myth mapmakers taking game world in fascinating new directions.

technology

the fallen lords supported both software rendering , 3dfx s glide hardware acceleration. after released, bungie released v1.1 upgrade patch, added support rendition s redline, , 3dfx s voodoo rush. soulblighter supported software rendering, 3dfx , rendition gpus, , graphics cards supported direct3d windows , quickdraw 3d mac. game supported 3d audio, aureal semiconductor s a3d , creative labs eax.

later releases

in 1999, bungie re-released soulblighter mac os , windows part of special edition called myth: total codex. bundle included fallen lords, soulblighter v1.3 (bungie s last official update of game), soulblighter expansion pack myth ii: chimera (developed myth mapmaker group badlands, in association bungie themselves), , official strategies , secrets guides both of main games. soulblighter later ported linux loki entertainment.

in june 2000, take-two interactive, had purchased 19.9% of bungie s shares in 1999, acquired oni , myth intellectual properties after bungie purchased outright microsoft. take-two s first myth release green berets: powered myth ii in july, 2001. set in vietnam war, green berets total conversion of soulblighter engine, , includes copy of soulblighter, fear , loathing tools. developed mapmakers within myth community, in association talonsoft, green berets features 8 new multiplayer maps, , option use green berets units whilst playing soulblighter single-player campaign. take-two s second release myth ii: worlds in october. worlds includes copy of soulblighter, soulblighter strategies , secrets guide in pdf form, , 2 disks of fan-created single-player campaigns, multiplayer maps, , gameplay mods.