- Pronouns
- He/They
before we get into the actual meat of the thread, it’s worth briefly recapping what happened prior to the creation of the build.
Kameo was one of the many long delayed Rare games to start development on the N64, though the public wouldn’t learn of it’s existence until it had moved to the GameCube.
despite that obvious set-back, they were still fairly confident the game would prove to be a major exclusive. just now on the Xbox.
the fairy protagonist even made a cameo at the end of the promotional video Rare created to commemorate the acquisition.
the game continued to truck on for the next two years, with a fair bit of retooling along the way. the Pokémon-like focus on capturing monsters was thrown out, in exchange for having a pre-determined selection of them you’d gradually unlock through progression. and the fairy went from being a “cute” pink clothed girl to getting a slightly edgier green outfit.
“Rares creative masterminds have transformed the character from pretty to gorgeous - no mean feat.” - some random forum user after the design was revealed.
this demo represents an interesting stumbling block in the game’s final transition to the 360. Rare was very confident in it’s potential as a major game for the Original Xbox, planning to spread this demo through magazine cover discs. (with another 20 disks containing Kameo and nothing else already being manufactured, a likely source for this dump.)
from the official Prima guide for the game.
the reasoning for why it got shifted to 360 at the last minute was likely Microsoft mandated, the original Xbox was a massive money drain owing to it’s high manufacturing cost. with a reportedly poor & pricey contract with Nvidia (who made the console’s GPU) being one factor for the poor margins.
with a successor being so quickly fast-tracked, a project like Kameo made more sense as an early launch game rather than a swansong. as Microsoft had already poured their expectations on Halo 2 (itself undergoing severe development problems to ensure it launched on-time) being the last major title planned for the 2004 holiday season.
with this historical context in mind. it’s understandable why the release of this matters, as while a somewhat later build containing the entire game has been floating around online for over a decade by this point. this marked the closest moment where the general public was meant to try this version of the game for themselves.
Kameo was one of the many long delayed Rare games to start development on the N64, though the public wouldn’t learn of it’s existence until it had moved to the GameCube.
…then Rare was bought by Microsoft a year later.Given the fact that up until yesterday no one even knew what Kameo: Elements of Power was, it's safe to say what we are seeing at E3 are the early stages of development. Things that seem limiting can easily be worked on with time and given the fact that this title is set to be released sometime in 2002, Rare has more than enough time to perfect what already seems like a very promising titles.
despite that obvious set-back, they were still fairly confident the game would prove to be a major exclusive. just now on the Xbox.
the fairy protagonist even made a cameo at the end of the promotional video Rare created to commemorate the acquisition.
the game continued to truck on for the next two years, with a fair bit of retooling along the way. the Pokémon-like focus on capturing monsters was thrown out, in exchange for having a pre-determined selection of them you’d gradually unlock through progression. and the fairy went from being a “cute” pink clothed girl to getting a slightly edgier green outfit.
“Rares creative masterminds have transformed the character from pretty to gorgeous - no mean feat.” - some random forum user after the design was revealed.
this demo represents an interesting stumbling block in the game’s final transition to the 360. Rare was very confident in it’s potential as a major game for the Original Xbox, planning to spread this demo through magazine cover discs. (with another 20 disks containing Kameo and nothing else already being manufactured, a likely source for this dump.)
from the official Prima guide for the game.
the reasoning for why it got shifted to 360 at the last minute was likely Microsoft mandated, the original Xbox was a massive money drain owing to it’s high manufacturing cost. with a reportedly poor & pricey contract with Nvidia (who made the console’s GPU) being one factor for the poor margins.
with a successor being so quickly fast-tracked, a project like Kameo made more sense as an early launch game rather than a swansong. as Microsoft had already poured their expectations on Halo 2 (itself undergoing severe development problems to ensure it launched on-time) being the last major title planned for the 2004 holiday season.
with this historical context in mind. it’s understandable why the release of this matters, as while a somewhat later build containing the entire game has been floating around online for over a decade by this point. this marked the closest moment where the general public was meant to try this version of the game for themselves.