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PODCAST [ Live from eGames 2008 ] by Gavan at 2:34am
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FEATURE [ NXE ] by SniperXtreme at 2:08am
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Report: eGames 2008 by Oracle at 11:57pm
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A Visit to Transmission Games
Yug and Oracle take a visit to local Melbourne game developer Transmission Games, and check out their upcoming next gen titles they have in the works.
A visit to Transmission Games | Interview with Mike Fegan
I should start this particular studio tour off with a full disclaimer - my girlfriend Lauren currently works at Transmission Games as an Associate Producer.
Some might think this means I have a conflict of interests, but in fact when Oracle and I paid a visit to the Transmission offices, it happened to coincide with Lauren's job interview. At the time, our interests were very much the same - find out as much as we could about Transmission Games and how they operate as a developer.
So here I am, quite sometime later than expected (no thanks to Oracle - lazy bastard) here to give you the low down on one of Australia's most reputable and successful studios. Formerly IR Guru's, you pretty much have them to thank for any AFL titles ever to have been released. A few years ago they had a breakout hit with their Xbox title 'Heroes over the Pacific', and although I only played the demo, Mr Shoosh assures me it was one of the best titles to ever be released on Microsoft's original system.
Transmission are in a building that reminds me suspiciously of the same building Sega Creative Assembly and Krome Studios are also in - that big, square, boring red brick exterior that looks like the only thing housed inside is a crumbling law firm and a pawn shop.
As per usual with the Australian games industry - looks are more often than not, quite deceiving.
Oracle and Yug pose in the Transmission waiting room
We travel up to the 3rd floor, and step out into a Transmission waiting room. All around us are posters of previous titles, a few couches, and a door. No reception, which while initially confusing it's sorted out rather quickly as the door almost pre-emptively opens and we are greeted by Tony Reed, Marketing Manager at Transmission games and just one of those guys who seems to be involved with pretty much EVERYTHING in the local industry.
Seriously, I'm adding him to my 'Industry people I look up to' list - right alongside John Passfield, Mark Fludder, Steve Fawkner, Jason Hill and Jeff Brand. I've got an image of them all walking down the road wearing suits while 'Little Green Bag' plays in the background.
But who would be Mr Pink?
Back to Transmission though! First of all - once you're inside the studio, don't expect to find your way back out anytime soon. The aforementioned door to get in is so unassuming from the inside that you could mistake it for a closet. Adding to the confusion, the layout is a perfect square that has the same desk / computer setup on along all 4 sides.
I'm sure once you've worked there for a bit its fine, but I started to get confused.
It is a nice open plan though, with small collectives of tables with about 6 or more people working away. Breaking up the monotony are vertical banners hanging from the ceiling every couple of metres along the square pathway that showcase gaming environments from iconic games through the ages. When at the Sega offices, you'll find artwork of Sega games ... but at Transmission, they like to remind themselves of ALL the games that inspired them. I think that’s cool.
Inspirational game banners hanging from the ceiling
I got to sit down and have a long chat to Tony, as well as the CEO of Transmission Mike Fegan. I was also given a little time with very early builds of two upcoming Transmission games - Heroes over Europe, and an unannounced next-gen sports title who's name I can't mention just yet.
Heroes over Europe
Now THIS will be a title to look out for come early next year for the next gen systems. Surprisingly, there aren't many flying games in general for the next gen systems, and those that do exist are usually your modern day fighter jet simulation.
Heroes is a throwback to the World War 2 era, the main advantage of that is that aerial dog-fighting was alot more close combat orientated back then. No computer guided missile systems, it's all about the machine guns baby.
Heroes takes this one step further, with an exciting new method I can only describe as 'lock on bullet time', where you get an enemy in your sights for an extended period of time, enabling you to enter this particular mode where time slows down, and you can target different weak points of your opponent.
I thought I was well and truly over the bullet time effect, but it seems it's not the case as it makes the mid air dog fights that much more exciting.
The series has always been about re-creating huge battles with as many planes as possible, and the step up to next gen will try not to disappoint. The level I played seemed slightly generic, but I was shown a map of a ravaged England that they will be using to recreate one of the 'Battle over Britain' levels later on in the game. Although there were a few frame rate problems, the level I saw was packed full of flying machines, big lumbering bombers as well as nimble fighters, all performing impressive aerial feats in the background.
The story promises to adhere to the time period, with a certain amount of camp no doubt likely to creep in thanks in part to some scripting by none other than Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation fame, and Scod from the comedy band Tripod!
Some of you may have been wondering what happened to that other announced title Transmission were to be working on, based on a little graphic novel and movie you've probably never heard of called 'Sin City'. Unfortunately, financial issues being experienced by Red Mile were effecting the ongoing production of Sin City, and Transmission decided to pursue other opportunities instead. It's been hinted that there was an initial demo and tech created already for the game, and there is still potential that the studio might end up working on the game sometime in the future.
Upcoming next-gen sports title
I'm probably not the best person to give an accurate representation of how this game is shaping up, as I'm just not a huge sports game fan in general. Oh sure, I know the rules and some of the teams - when hung-over on a Sunday there's not much else on the TV - but I don't really find it all that exciting.
That said, at this early stage in the game there wasn't much gameplay to actually show, so it was mostly about the graphics and realism trying to be achieved. I'm fairly confident that these guys have some sort of disorder to make them this obsessed with this particular game. The characters and animations are definitely next gen - you can definitely make out who is who on the Australian team.
In an interesting twist of fate, Transmission contracted the digital creation of the Indian team faces to - you guessed it - an outsourcing company in India.
There is some meticulous detail going into the stadium design as well, with one of the guys pointing out he had already gone through 4 or 5 iterations of the one in particular.