*SNIP*
Knowledge and playtime (100h+) of the Total War franchise (preferably from Warhammer 1 and forward) and/or equivalent knowledge and playtime for Company of Heroes series.
I’m optimistic about Definitive Edition. I’m not involved with the beta, so I don’t have any inside knowledge about it, but my hope is that it’s either amazing or terrible. If it’s just okay, I think it runs the risk of fracturing the community between those who prefer the current versions available. So far everything looks really promising to me from the screenshots and gameplay that’s been teased. It has a lot of quality of life improvements, while keeping the core experience intact.
*SNIP*
It was an absolute pleasure to organize our most prestigious tournament with our largest prize pool to date. Many at Relic and SEGA watched the action over the weekend and were blown away by the level of competition, the casting, and community passion.
pcgamesn | Age of Empires 4 will use “analytic-based tutorialising” to welcome new players:
In an interview at X019, we asked Adam Isgreen if AoE4 would be a good jumping in point for new players, and how it would be accessible to them. https://www.pcgamesn.com/age-of-empires-4/tutorials
Pcgamer interview with Blizzard| It sure sounds like StarCraft 2's devs would like to make StarCraft 3:
https://www.pcgamer.com/it-sure-sounds-like-starcraft-2s-devs-would-like-to-make-starcraft-3/
Speaking to StarCraft 2 production director Tim Morton and lead co-op designer Kevin Dong at BlizzCon earlier today, I had to ask: Are you making StarCraft 3? Blizzard announced numbered sequels to two of its biggest series this week, after all, so it's not out of the question.
Morton's answer didn't suggest that StarCraft 3 is secretly in production—though he could have an excellent poker face—but did suggest that he'd very much like to build it.
"The best way for us to figure out our future is to hear from players," said Morton. "So, I think if there's an interest in seeing more RTS games, sending that message to Blizzard would be a wonderful thing."
sked if they were waiting for the right time, then. "Ultimately, the team that works on StarCraft 2 is incredibly passionate about real-time strategy as a genre," said Morton. "I can certainly say it's my favorite genre to play and so far it's been my favorite genre to work on."
Dong agreed, and we talked about the genre a bit. Morton brought up recent independent games in the genre like Tooth & Tail and They Are Billions, as well as Microsoft and Relic's work on Age of Empires 4.
"I actually think there's a great opportunity there in the future, but yeah, we'll just have to see what the future holds," he said.
Morton is clearly happy to be working on StarCraft 2, which still has a very dedicated base of both competitive and cooperative players. The cooperative mode is actually StarCraft 2's most popular mode now, he tells me, as it keeps non-competitive players who might've left after the campaign around. I also discussed with Dong how DeepMind AI competitions are causing players to question the meta. There's a long held tradition of using 16 workers per mineral mine. The AI, however, recently used as many as 21, and players are wondering who's right.
But it sure sounds like Morton is up for StarCraft 3, if Blizzard gave it the green light—and it sounds like demonstrating a bigger market for new RTSes is the key to that.
We didn't get into what such a sequel would look like, but maybe Diablo 4's new engine could be put to use in that respect.
YouTuber Spirit Of The Law talk about building his AoE channel and the danger of fracturing the AoE community. IMO this happen to SC2, CoH2 and DoW2/DoW3. Except maybe Homeworld 2 Relic to date has not made a faithful sequel. Relic really needs to understand that making a new IP is not the same as making a sequel.
I’m optimistic about Definitive Edition. I’m not involved with the beta, so I don’t have any inside knowledge about it, but my hope is that it’s either amazing or terrible. If it’s just okay, I think it runs the risk of fracturing the community between those who prefer the current versions available. So far everything looks really promising to me from the screenshots and gameplay that’s been teased. It has a lot of quality of life improvements, while keeping the core experience intact.
For me, the bigger change that’s happened over the last few years in the community has been the rise of YouTube and Twitch. When I started my YouTube channel five years ago, the biggest channel at the time had 30,000 subscribers, and now there are a handful of Age of Empires-specific channels with over 100,000. I know of several Twitch streamers who stream AoE2 for a living. The game has transitioned from being something that’s exclusively played to something that is watched a lot. I see comments all the time from people telling me they’ve never even played the game, but just enjoy the theory crafting and watching others play. It seems to be something Microsoft is aware of and supporting with the upcoming Definitive Edition.
Wayne makes the leap to Pixelmatic after having spent nearly 12 years as a Technical Artist and Technical Art Director at Relic Entertainment. He worked as a Principal Technical Artist on both the Company of Heroes and Dawn of War franchises, before leading technical art direction on the highly anticipated upcoming blockbuster, Age of Empires IV.
Wayne’s journey into game art actually started in the AutoCAD labs of the Vancouver Lower Mainland, where he studied CAD architecture. Following his passion for gaming and feature films, he soon decided to switch from architecture to 3D animation, graduating from the famed Vancouver Film School. After cutting his teeth working on numerous 3D animated TV series, Wayne took on more art supervision roles in TV and film, before finally entering the game industry in 2005 as a Technical Artist on FIFA at EA Sports. Enticed by his love for Homeworld, Wayne took the opportunity to join Relic when it came along, and went on to spend a very productive decade there.
Having had shipped multiple AAA titles at Relic, why was Wayne attracted to an up-and-coming studio such as Pixelmatic? In his own words, Wayne claims that, “games are evolving and need to evolve to effectively compete for players’ precious spare time. Longevity and success of large games need the support of tech carefully planned into the game design. The core creative team on Infinite Fleet, led by Jason Lee and Damon Gauthier, understand this and it's our number one focus to create a game where the marriage between game design and tech is meaningful, not to mention achievable.”
Pixelmatic, being the nimble and innovative studio that it is, is well positioned to be adaptive and address the changing landscape of games. It is exactly this willingness to be flexible and embrace innovation that has attracted a talent like Wayne who brings with him his unique art vision as well as his immense pedigree.
On his vision for Infinite Fleet, Wayne said, “Pixelmatic and myself, we love both fictional and non-fictional science. We also love anime. My vision for Infinite Fleet is to create a colorful nostalgic universe where players can engage in over the top anime-esk battles, or friends can simply explore beautiful vistas together while they forge their fleets. Infinite Fleet will have a deep lore rooted in the goals and challenges that the human race are faced with today. We want the world we are creating to spark conversation about technology and what the future holds for us as a species. I’ll be referencing and imbuing the franchise with shapes, colors, and motion familiar to anime fans, and I’m excited to share this vision in the coming months with Infinite Fleet’s growing community.”
Besides the new ideas Wayne is bringing to Infinite Fleet, he is also excited about existing innovations that the Pixelmatic team is already implementing. “The cryptographic game money of Infinite Fleet, INF, is cutting edge and is designed to power player agency both in and out of session by being portable and easily fungible with other cryptocurrencies. We are also exploring machine learning, leveraging HDRP in Unity, and experimenting with Houdini FX. The art team is taking full advantage of all the latest techniques in Substance Painter/Designer, harnessing the power of Blender 2.8, and much more. It's an exciting time at Pixelmatic.”
The entire Pixelmatic team is excited to officially have Wayne Wong-Chong onboard, and we look forward to accomplishing great things with Infinite Fleet.
ANNOUNCING KEY NEW HIRES TO SPEARHEAD INFINITE FLEET DEVELOPMENT:
JUNE 20, 2019
https://www.pixelmatic.com/news/jason-damon-hired
2019 is going to be a big year, and Pixelmatic is excited to announce the expansion of its team with two major hires to spearhead the development of Infinite Fleet.
The company’s new Chief Creative Officer, Jason Lee, joins as an acclaimed game systems designer from Relic Entertainment. Having spent 13 productive years at Relic, Jason most recently led game design on the Age of Empires 4 project -- a major upcoming title in the monumental Age of Empires series published by Microsoft. Previously, he had worked on the highly acclaimed strategy game Company of Heroes 2, as well as having been part of the game balance team of the original Company of Heroes game.
Looking back on what he learned through his time at Relic, Jason mentions the importance of synergizing good gameplay mechanics with a rich game story/lore. “Building gameplay that helps tell the narrative,” Jason said, “this is probably the greatest lesson I take from Relic and bring to Infinite Fleet -- to have gameplay and story support each other to lead the player through a truly immersive, epic sci-fi adventure.”
Another specialty that Jason brings is his expertise on the art of gameplay balance -- a tricky yet crucial component of any multiplayer game. For any game to be successful, it is absolutely vital that a fine balance is achieved in terms of game dynamics and win rates between different characters and factions.
Pixelmatic also brought in veteran game designer Damon Gauthier, who joins from famed Canadian games studio BioWare, the company behind the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series. Previously, Damon was a member of the original Homeworld team at Relic -- Homeworld being one of the most innovative and highly acclaimed titles of all time in the real-time strategy (RTS) game genre. In his career, Damon has worked on over 10 shipped titles, with most of them being huge successes.
Damon brings with him a wealth of experience in multiplayer gameplay and 3D RTS combat game design. He takes particular pride in his work on Homeworld 2, where he was able to work with lead designer Josh Mosqueira on the complex multiplayer 3D space battles associated with a game like Homeworld.
On how he plans to translate his experience from Homeworld to Infinite Fleet, Damon said, “from a players perspective managing a fleet in 3D space, sending out scouts, planning where to attack and micromanaging your units in full 3D isn’t simple. The experience of working on Homeworld 2 has made me look carefully at the barrier to entry on a full 3D RTS. I have a lot of ideas on how to tackle these problems and I will be using that knowledge here on Infinite Fleet.”
Jason, Damon, and Pixelmatic CEO Samson Mow were all previously colleagues at Relic. This close relationship and chemistry of having worked together bodes well for the development of Infinite Fleet, as the three friends seek to create a masterpiece out of their dream project.
10
Denmark
Relic Entertainment
cblanco ★ 
보드카 중대 
VonManteuffel 
Heartless Jäger 
SturmTigerCobra
