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Licensing Infinity
Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2002 9:01 am
by fable
Now, there's a grand, eye-catching thread title. Too bad the content is just devoted to the the immediate future of the 2D Infinity Engine.
It's highly unlikely that Infogrammes, the new owner of Interplay's assets, is going to turn out another Infinity-based 2D RPG. The question then arises: what do you do with such an engine? Simiply retire it? Yet I'd be willing to bet there are small dev teams out there who would love to get their hands on the engine and the game tools both Bioware and BIS used over the last few years. Wouldn't it be worth something to Infogrammes to "rent" the engine? Strangely enough, old engines are usually just retired permanantly. Perhaps the owners fear competition for newer products, but if that's so, the concern seems misplaced.
Your opinions?
Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2002 9:06 am
by Ode to a Grasshopper
If they ever do release it I want to see a Dark Flame/SLURR-merchant mod!
Will add a serious comment when it's not so late at night.
Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2002 9:15 am
by Robnark
i believe they should have copied valve's massterful idea with half-life a lot earlier - the release of the official tools for working with the engine, as it would have created a potentially huge base of add-ons and mods, or een total conversions. there would be many people (myself for one) who would like to make small mods to the game without the hassle involved in using the makeshift third party tools out there. if anything, this could increase sales for infinity engine games with a large community and range of mods to be found on the net.
also, if they fear competition from infinity engine games, they could just be cheeky and make sure the new games etc. could only be run through their exisitng products - possibly a technically difficult thing to do? if so, just release the tools alongside a dedicated program for running the creations. as such, they could ensure the 'competition' is using their program to compete.
Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2002 9:33 am
by Kameleon
I think it's a great idea - the infinity engine is so good that if they wanted to, they could command large licensing fees - not up to the price of ID, but worth enough that they wouldn't have to do anything like what Robnark is suggesting. I would love to see some good third party games using the Infinity engine, especially after having seen mods of the calibre of DSotSC and TDD...
Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2002 10:51 am
by KidD01
Originally posted by fable
Now, there's a grand, eye-catching thread title. Too bad the content is just devoted to the the immediate future of the 2D Infinity Engine.
It's highly unlikely that Infogrammes, the new owner of Interplay's assets, is going to turn out another Infinity-based 2D RPG. The question then arises: what do you do with such an engine? Simiply retire it? Yet I'd be willing to bet there are small dev teams out there who would love to get their hands on the engine and the game tools both Bioware and BIS used over the last few years. Wouldn't it be worth something to Infogrammes to "rent" the engine? Strangely enough, old engines are usually just retired permanantly. Perhaps the owners fear competition for newer products, but if that's so, the concern seems misplaced.
Your opinions?
fable you weasel !
2D engines are mostly "dead" I've seen game developers company, especially big ones like Interplay quickly "permanent" retire 2D game engines. IMO there're lots of things can be done with 2D game engines. But sadly the hippe of 3D game engines which follow AGP display cards are stronger than the 2Ds. I think I've mention this on my tomb of popular game some time ago, that game developer companies mostly copy other games feature and simply add some other feature.
Yet the market demand due the console also feature some detailed 3D nowadays make 3D on PC gaming a must. I also blame Tomb Raider for this matter. That cheap game ruins all game developers ideas.
So if there's game designer out there reading this, I challenge you to create 3D games from a scratch. Not just by looking at some game and say "Yes! this is a good one, with addition of abc feature and feature form ZXY game, we can make a big bucks"
Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2002 2:13 pm
by Nightmare
About the 2D vs. 3D issue, I think that 3D is great but not essential. For FPS's its pretty much essential, but not for other games. Text-RPG's (no graphics) are quite fun, and not too many 3D stratagy games (maybe Sacrifice) can hold a candle to 2D games like Red Alert and Starcraft.
Although, I am glad NWN is going to be 3D.