Recently, Developmag.com had a chance to sit down and talk all things development with the head of Silicon Knights, Denis Dyack. Silicon Knights is about ready to release Too Human for the Xbox 360, a game that's been in and out of development for roughly ten years now.
Despite their hardships during the development, surely the man had nothing but great things to say about Epic Games and the Unreal Engine 3, right?
During the development of Too Human on the Unreal Engine 3, Silicon Knights decided to sue Epic for a "breach of contract." They claimed that Epic Games were inadequate in their support, service, and cooperation with Silicon Knights concerning the use of the UE3. You can actually read the entire copy of the lawsuit courtesy of Gamasutra if you're so inclined. After they had to scrap the UE3, the team had to build their own engine for use in the game.
Once you're done with that tasty read, head back over to Develop to read the rest of the interview with Dyack.
Despite their hardships during the development, surely the man had nothing but great things to say about Epic Games and the Unreal Engine 3, right?
So how does it feel to finally see this game, which has been in development for ten years, finally come out?
Oh that’s a myth, it’s not true. We originally conceived Too Human back in 1993 and we eventually showed the game off on the PSone. That was back before we became a Nintendo second party, and when we signed with Nintendo we stopped development and concentrated on Eternal Darkness. Once Eternal Darkness was complete, we thought we were going to move onto Too Human, but Metal Gear: The Twin Snakes came along instead.
After Metal Gear was finished we started on Too Human, and it was that point that we split away from Nintendo, after working with them for six years, and started working with Microsoft on it. So the Too Human you see today only really started development when Metal Gear Solid was completed. So it’s been a four-year development cycle and it would have been out even quicker, but we had to re-write the engine because of all the Epic stuff.
How is that matter progressing?
Well the trial is proceeding, we feel really good about our claims, and we’re hopeful that justice will be done. We all feel really strongly that they have defrauded us, and a major portion of the industry.
In case you're a little out of the loop on this whole trial business, a little background information might be needed.Oh that’s a myth, it’s not true. We originally conceived Too Human back in 1993 and we eventually showed the game off on the PSone. That was back before we became a Nintendo second party, and when we signed with Nintendo we stopped development and concentrated on Eternal Darkness. Once Eternal Darkness was complete, we thought we were going to move onto Too Human, but Metal Gear: The Twin Snakes came along instead.
After Metal Gear was finished we started on Too Human, and it was that point that we split away from Nintendo, after working with them for six years, and started working with Microsoft on it. So the Too Human you see today only really started development when Metal Gear Solid was completed. So it’s been a four-year development cycle and it would have been out even quicker, but we had to re-write the engine because of all the Epic stuff.
How is that matter progressing?
Well the trial is proceeding, we feel really good about our claims, and we’re hopeful that justice will be done. We all feel really strongly that they have defrauded us, and a major portion of the industry.
During the development of Too Human on the Unreal Engine 3, Silicon Knights decided to sue Epic for a "breach of contract." They claimed that Epic Games were inadequate in their support, service, and cooperation with Silicon Knights concerning the use of the UE3. You can actually read the entire copy of the lawsuit courtesy of Gamasutra if you're so inclined. After they had to scrap the UE3, the team had to build their own engine for use in the game.
Once you're done with that tasty read, head back over to Develop to read the rest of the interview with Dyack.