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News Jeff Grubb on Perfect Dark - "It sounds like it's in a very rough state. It doesn't sound like it's really come together in any way.."

It's gotten to the point where if I hear Xbox in the news, I just assume it's going to be a complete mess. In the next round of cuts and layoffs I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft felt compelled to scrap some of these long-announced games that just can't seem to come together. Speaking of, have we heard anything from the rumor mill about Everwild recently?
 
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ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
Literally none of what you described has anything to do with Perfect Dark as an IP which is probably the problem this game has run into.

Perfect Dark is a very stupid game thematically that is based around elite for its time tech and very fun multiplayer deathmatch. Multiplayer deathmatch has largely died outside of Call of Duty so if you're reviving Perfect Dark, you're either making a game nothing like Perfect Dark, or you're betting that you can revive very old-school FPS multiplayer by yourself.
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I played through Perfect Dark about 5 to 10 times as a kid. What I've described feels like a simple modern update to the single-player part of it. I never played much multi-player - no one I knew cared about multiplayer, but we all loved PD anyway.

Like you said, the multiplayer part of it is a non-starter in 2024, because that style of deathmatch is too out of date and the competition is the reddest of oceans. But what I've set out is a reasonable idea for the single player part (the part that matters) - I'd be interested to see where you disagree.

But it doesn't even matter whether we agree or not, or whether I'm wrong about this design fitting the IP, whether you think the levels should be more linear and no dialogue options etc. Even whether you think it should be entirely a multiplayer experience! What matters is that I was able to put together a solid concept that I could explain to a team in a day and have everyone working towards the same goal to create a vertical slice demo. It legit sounds like these guys didn't manage that for three years. Three years!
 
Heron said:
This is crazy, this should have been such an easy win for them. That IGN article is fascinating.


Everything here sounds wrong. "Playing through a film" is a garbage game design concept that would never come from an established game designer. It has no relevance to anything in the modern game industry. It sounds like a game pitch from 2005. Look, you have other successful spy games to crib from, you have a successful gameplay heritage from Perfect Dark 64... the game design pitch should relate entirely to that. Something concrete, that everyone involved in modern gaming immediately understands.

Like
-The game is a first person shooting game with minor stealth and dialogue interactions set in a near-future sci-fi world
-In later levels Joanna receives or can obtain a unique sci-fi spy gadget with gameplay effects - this is the unique gameplay hook. Can be mind-control, xray specs, time reversal... possibilities are endless. Let your gameplay and level designers design.
-Levels are broadly open and have multiple objectives which increase with difficulty, but some levels will be more open-linear and combat focused
-Level design should be similar in design to Hitman: World of Assassination, but does not necessarily need to have that level of complexity in NPC routines, but rather the number of different routes to an objective and "stylish sense of place" should be the focus
-Online interactions will be mostly based around daily leaderboard runs to complete unique objectives at high difficulties to unlock skins or weapons etc because there is no sense in trying to compete with the big beasts of online shooters (like Apex or Fortnite) with a game like this.

Or, to give you the above in one sentence: A first-person spy game with level design and objectives similar to Hitman: World of Assassination but with unique sci-fi gadgets and weapons. There. Every hardcore gamer would immediately know what they're getting with that.

Okay, actually developing that is harder than it sounds, but the concept? 3 years to figure something out? Come on, man.

Also, unpopular opinion but once the team started bailing in 2021 (after three years of no progress) and there was so little top talent left that some lower level workers did nothing for 9 months - that was the point to pull the plug. There's no coming back from a team self-imploding like that. Even the people you hire at that point probably aren't going to be good enough to turn it around because top talent will avoid what is known as a trashfire.

It all sounds like there's no one guy saying "Do this like this." It's endless managers who don't have the authority to just make a call and go with something. Teams need a single creative leader. Seems like too many of these MS studios just don't have one.
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This is exactly what happens when you don't have a singular director overseeing creative control of a project. You have game design be committee. It's pervasive in Western AAA studios and partly why their industry is flopping right now

As the saying goes, a camel is a horse made by committee.
 
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Dear Perfect Dark Devs. You can have this advice for free. Just make a mission based old fashioned FPS with missions and objectives to complete with a silly sci-fi story and an N64 era multiplayer that looks pretty.

There, I just saved you three years of planning time. Have at it
 
Galgavias said:
Dear Perfect Dark Devs. You can have this advice for free. Just make a mission based old fashioned FPS with missions and objectives to complete with a silly sci-fi story and an N64 era multiplayer that looks pretty.

There, I just saved you three years of planning time. Have at it
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I’m pretty sure this game would do terribly.

Why they revived Perfect Dark at all when the style of game is completely dead was always a mystery.
 
I imagine a new Perfect Dark would play like a Deus Ex game or maybe a Hitman style game but with more emphasis on weapons and gadgets. I think a mission style like the original on N64 would be a hard sell these days, at least not with the amount of money and development time that has already been put into the game. If it was meant to sell 1 million copies and it was budget that way, then sure, that could be successful but let's be real, Microsoft wants more than just 1 million copies sold.
 
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
I’m pretty sure this game would do terribly.

Why they revived Perfect Dark at all when the style of game is completely dead was always a mystery.
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If you played into the Goldeneye nostalgia and included some elements of Deus Ex/Hitman with Crystal Dynamics experience it could work for sure.

I sometimes feel that when people say 'oh those games don't sell anymore' it just becomes a self fulfilling prophesy. No-one has made a game like Perfect Dark for so long that actually no-one knows that it's not going to sell or not.
 
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
I’m pretty sure this game would do terribly.

Why they revived Perfect Dark at all when the style of game is completely dead was always a mystery.
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Okay, here's a game that would sell.

Dear Perfect Dark devs, please make a cinematic TPS like Uncharted except with an empathsis on stealthy heist/espionage missions. Please give directorial control to one singular person with a creative vision so you don't waste years changing your mind.

There, planning done.
 
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Reinhard Schneider said:
Honestly? Just port the Xbox 360 remaster to everything under the sun. Give the brand its lost recognition and then develop whatever you want.

People remembers PDZero over PD, that needs to be fixed.
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That would actually require Microsoft to give a hoot about porting any of their old 360 era stuff that isn't Halo.
 
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Reinhard Schneider said:
My bets are

a) They were aiming for something way bigger in scope

b) They were rebooting the whole thing, and aimed for something different

c) Microsoft being Microsoft with PD once again.

No matter how simple the game is, in the wrong hands it can, and it will, go awry



Either someone at the dev team straightens this, or it's going to be a massive clusterfuck.
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This is why failure always falls under leadership. You can have an ambitious and creatively talented team of devs, but the project managers and producers are supposed to keep everything in check. Make sure scope doesn't balloon beyond means, pacify the money-men, make sure your teams aren't fighting each other for direction.

Galgavias said:
If you played into the Goldeneye nostalgia and included some elements of Deus Ex/Hitman with Crystal Dynamics experience it could work for sure.

I sometimes feel that when people say 'oh those games don't sell anymore' it just becomes a self fulfilling prophesy. No-one has made a game like Perfect Dark for so long that actually no-one knows that it's not going to sell or not.
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Such a project I think needs to be done quick and dirty by a small team, because I don't even know if the devs would be excited just making what was the old style but with new paint. I wouldn't be surprised if the problems with the current game are a reflection of fighting directions.
 
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go figure!!!!

i have rants that i can go on right now. but microsoft have absolutely no idea what they're doing. just fucking cancel it. crazy shit.
 
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Reinhard Schneider said:
Honestly? Just port the Xbox 360 remaster to everything under the sun.
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The port needs to be remade, It's fairly flawed:

-No original graphics option, everything was retextured - weapons and heads were worst off
-Visual effects reduced; PD was a very flashy game, port made everything flatter
-Whole game looks a bit too bright/washed out (patched-in gamma slider didn't really help)
-Some animations, particularly gun firing/reloads, were sped up in 60 FPS conversion
-Launched with minimal control options, patch to add a couple more was poorly coded
-Manual aiming isn't smooth (patched-in sensitivity sliders didn't really help)
-Strong echo added to all hallways, can't be disabled
-'Camera follows head' death animation doesn't work
-Swapped heads in multiplayer don't have necks
-Menus are kind of a mess to navigate
-Various minor audio bugs
-New blander fonts
-Multiplayer front end needs complete overhaul
 
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I'm going to be honest: I think a modern Perfect Dark game, especially one that had no involvement from Rare, was a total nonstarter of an idea in the first place.

It's abundantly clear that there was no pitch for a Perfect Dark game here. It was greenlit solely because of the IP before there was even a kernel of an idea for a game. That alone is such a completely misguided idea, because in the 2020s, the name Perfect Dark is only going to appeal to a very niche demographic in the first place: those who fondly remember the original Nintendo 64 game. Even then, it doesn't have the same level of cultural legacy that, for instance, Goldeneye had. If someone came up to Microsoft saying "I have an absolutely amazing idea for a modern Perfect Dark game", that'd be one thing, but this was a case of Microsoft going "you're going to make a Perfect Dark game for us" with no rhyme or reason or any direction, which is unbelievably baffling to me.

If you're judging by IP alone, what does the premise of Perfect Dark even offer in the current era? The setting isn't particularly unique or captivating, the multiplayer deathmatch FPS genre has been run into the ground, and a single-player story-based FPS game is a hard sell these days, especially one with, let's be honest with ourselves, a very silly storyline like Perfect Dark.

I 100% sympathize with the developers who had to desperately try to make something work out of what was more or less a premise that was doomed from the start. I have no idea what Microsoft was trying to do here.
 
This was pretty much the only thing that I was holding on to my Xbox Series S for or looking forward to from Xbox for the foreseeable future. :(

I guess my Series S will continue being my backwards-compatibility Xbox machine.
 
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I just don't understand. When did everyone decide this was supposed to be complicated? The template for Perfect Dark is literally right there. Linear FPS. Start small. The woman in the initial teaser could've literally been anybody and that trailer could've had any title splash and it wouldn't have changed a thing.

Such a waste, dude
 
NSO Perfect Dark announcement coming soon followed by a silent cancellation of the new game amidst all the stories taking over the search algorithms…
 
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