Valued Cultures

Welcome to the second-to-last episode of our Pitch Archives! To celebrate the 25th anniversary of YAGER, we are looking at past projects that never really made it. We look back at 2006, around the same time as Vertical War. YAGER dipped their toes into another Unreal Engine 3 project. Like Vertical War, Eye of the Storm was also meant to be a cover shooter, the genre that emerged during that time and would dominate the gaming market for some time. Let us dive a bit deeper into the world of Eye of the Storm: The year is 2050; the city of Chicago became quite the dystopian hellhole and was indefinitely encircled by a powerful hurricane and cut off from the outside world. So the name of the game can be taken quite literally, as Eye of the Storm was set in the Eye of the Storm. Watch the video to get a better impression of the project: LINK A military regime ruled Chicago with an iron fist; their tool of the trade are so-called Goliaths, deadly mechs that they won't shy away to use. You are playing an outlaw, formerly one of the best mech pilots around, now a mercenary working for the rebels to bring the regime to its knees. During the single-player or co-op campaign, you would have uncovered the truth about your character and the storm. Using cover shooter mechanics, like in Vertical War, would have been the perfect fit for this dark and gritty version of Chicago, as we planned to use some verticality here as well. Furthermore, the mechs would provide engaging and challenging fights. We aimed for the David vs. Goliath feel (ha, the mechs even are called Goliath) and took some inspiration from a 2005 masterpiece: Shadow of the Colossus.  As with Vertical War, we learned a lot about cover mechanics and third-person shooters in general while working on Eye of the Storm. Many ideas and learnings actually carried over to Spec Ops: The Line. We continued to play around with the idea of mechs, which will be tackled in our last Pitch Archives episode—Tin Men. And even the motif of the storm made a return in The Cycle and The Cycle: Frontier.  Thank you for watching and reading this episode of our YAGER Pitch Archives. We will be back with the last episode soon! Introduction by Timo Ullmann Narration by Josh Bonzheim

We are honoured to have Senua's Saga: Hellblade II pick up four nominations at #TheGameAwards. Please do consider voting for our game, it would mean the world to us. 🗳 https://lnkd.in/dVkC27Jy

I love it when my worlds collide! Today on the podcast I co-produce, "Top Docs", we feature a powerful, moving documentary largely set in World of Warcraft--a game celebrating its 20th anniversary. To his “real” family, Mats Steen was a loving brother and son, rather shy and reserved; to his World of Warcraft family, Mats — known by his avatar Ibelin Redmoore — was bold, outgoing, and something of a ladies’ man. Both families were devastated by Mats’ tragic passing from Duchenne muscular dystrophy when he was only in his mid-20s. https://lnkd.in/gQs9YYVD In his deeply moving, brilliantly constructed new Netflix documentary “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin,” director Benjamin Ree (“The Painter and the Thief”, “Magnus”) illuminates all aspects of Mats’ life in a profound way that neither of his families could possibly have imagined.   Benjamin joins Ken Jacobson on the pod to discuss his own remarkable creative journey as he set out to give full measure to Mats’ story — both in real life and inside the World of Warcraft universe. How did Benjamin animate the 42,000 pages of texts from the game to recreate Ibelin’s adventures and relationships within the World of Warcraft community that he was a part of? In what ways was telling this film comparable to writing a symphony, with its innovative, repetitive structure building over time? And, finally, what has been the startling and legacy of Mat’s life on those who knew him and on the thousands of gamers who never met him? There’s no avatar for that kind of impact. “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin” is streaming on Netflix.   Follow: @benjaminree_ on Instagram and @Benjamin_Ree on X @topdocspod on Instagram and X   Hidden Gems: “Brothers” “The Overnighters” “The Arbor”   The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix. #documentaryfilm #worldofwarcraft #duchenne #blizzardentertainment

I realize that everyone may be pretty distracted this week, but I thought I'd take a moment to announce that I will be presenting at Wisconsin Games Alliance's MDev this Friday in Madison! #MDEV2024