UK Studio Closures Have Helped Us, Says Ruffian
Producer of Crackdown 2 also details 'tension' with Realtime Worlds.
Ruffian Games producer James Cope has spoken of how recent closures of other UK developers has helped them grow, and of the tension with original Crackdown studio Realtime Worlds as Ruffian was handed development duties on the sequel.
Speaking at the recent NEon event in Dundee, Cope said “It's a little bit sad to say, but we've been fortunate from timings of closing of other studios. There's an ebb and flow to the games industry and studios are born and die. And we became a little bit lucky when a couple of key studios went under, like Midway. That helped us a lot.”
That extra manpower is being used to make Crackdown 2 as perfect as possible. Cope demonstrated an early version of the game and allowed attendees to try out the multiplayer mode, as he discussed how most successful games today are staying relevant due to “life persistence” - in other words, a damn fine online experience.
It is an achievement Ruffian hopes to make with Crackdown 2, despite the fact that the studio was only formed back in January and confirmed its work on the sequel some months later. Cope said that this caused “a little bit of tension”, because “Realtime really wanted to make a sequel. For one reason and another Microsoft couldn't sign the project at that time, and Realtime are trying to do APB and the timing just didn't line up.”
Add the fact that Ruffian was formed by two ex-Realtime employees, plus the COO of a resource company that Microsoft brought in to help Realtime complete the original Crackdown, and you have a bit of an Eastenders episode going on here.
Cope said that the focus of Ruffian Games is not to take on too many projects at once and try to supercede others, but simply to focus on one game at a time to ensure its quality. “We're not putting people with really great skills in the position of having to manage multiple things. You always get that situation where one game, one project, becomes more important than the other and you dilute your key staff across that. We want to stay incredibly focused on making really great core action games. That's where the future of the company is.”
Source: GamesIndustry
Speaking at the recent NEon event in Dundee, Cope said “It's a little bit sad to say, but we've been fortunate from timings of closing of other studios. There's an ebb and flow to the games industry and studios are born and die. And we became a little bit lucky when a couple of key studios went under, like Midway. That helped us a lot.”
That extra manpower is being used to make Crackdown 2 as perfect as possible. Cope demonstrated an early version of the game and allowed attendees to try out the multiplayer mode, as he discussed how most successful games today are staying relevant due to “life persistence” - in other words, a damn fine online experience.
It is an achievement Ruffian hopes to make with Crackdown 2, despite the fact that the studio was only formed back in January and confirmed its work on the sequel some months later. Cope said that this caused “a little bit of tension”, because “Realtime really wanted to make a sequel. For one reason and another Microsoft couldn't sign the project at that time, and Realtime are trying to do APB and the timing just didn't line up.”
Add the fact that Ruffian was formed by two ex-Realtime employees, plus the COO of a resource company that Microsoft brought in to help Realtime complete the original Crackdown, and you have a bit of an Eastenders episode going on here.
Cope said that the focus of Ruffian Games is not to take on too many projects at once and try to supercede others, but simply to focus on one game at a time to ensure its quality. “We're not putting people with really great skills in the position of having to manage multiple things. You always get that situation where one game, one project, becomes more important than the other and you dilute your key staff across that. We want to stay incredibly focused on making really great core action games. That's where the future of the company is.”
Source: GamesIndustry
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