http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/18/5520112/epic-games-new-ip-samaritanAter selling Gears of War to Microsoft earlier this year, Epic Games is building a new game and intellectual property to carry the studio forward.
During the "Animation Bootcamp: Animation Prototyping for Games" panel at this year's Game Developers Conference, lead animator Jay Hosfelt detailed the studio's revamped design philosophies as it builds its new game without a publishing partner. No name or release timetable was given, though concept art and character models shown during the panel resembled the unnamed hero of Epic's 2011 "Samaritan" technical demonstration.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgS67BwPfFY
"Samaritan" was unveiled during GDC 2011 as a proof of concept and target for the "3.5" version of Epic's Unreal Engine 3, ostensibly aimed at "next-generation" platforms. Epic has left "Samaritan" in a drawer somewhere since 2011, as the studio debuted Unreal Engine 4 in 2012 with its "Elemental" demo.
Epic also showed a new Unreal Engine 4 demo titled "Infiltrator" at last year's GDC.
The below concept art and character model were shown within the context of the game in active development, though no mention was made of "Samaritan" directly. Instead, the model was presented as a character from the in-development but as-of-yet unnamed new IP.
The similarities between the model and the figure in the "Samaritan" demo are clear they share the same outfit and revolver-style weapon, and the model was shown with two different heads, mirroring the transformation of the Samaritan in the UE 3.5 demonstration.
Hosfelt's panel explained Epic's new game prototyping process, using its new IP as its case study. He described the manner in which non-final character models are rapidly created to use in fast design exercises in an effort to "fail early and fail often." This is a direct response to the increasing time required to create current and next-gen in-game assets the visual building blocks of the game which can often take several weeks or months. The process Hosfelt described uses Unreal Engine 4's object-oriented animation tools and iterative abilities to try new design ideas before those assets are completed.
Hosfelt estimated that the time between the idea phase and a playable prototype on their current project is one week. His estimate for a similar stage of playability for Gears of War 3 took approximately 12 weeks.
Epic Games revealed its other in-development project, Fortnite, in 2011. The company is attending this week's Game Developers Conference, where it plans to make an unspecified announcement.
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Epic working on new, unannounced IP (concept art unrelated)
- Thread starter nbnt
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BigTnaples
Todd Howard's Secret GAF Account
Hell yes.
Samaritan looked amazing, and too realized to be just a tech demo.
Elemental was just a tech demo.
Samaritan looked amazing, and too realized to be just a tech demo.
Elemental was just a tech demo.
Yeah, this is the Project Nano game that seems to be canceled.
Their other new IP seems to be something different.
Edit:
Reading through, did they explicitly say this was still in development?
Well here's the info about it then: http://www.vgleaks.com/project-nano-aka-blueprint-from-epic-games-unveiled/
Their other new IP seems to be something different.
Edit:
Reading through, did they explicitly say this was still in development?
Well here's the info about it then: http://www.vgleaks.com/project-nano-aka-blueprint-from-epic-games-unveiled/
Rogue_Ledr
Banned
If Sony is smart they should try to partner with Epic for this game like MS did with them for Gears.
Gears seemed to work well enough for MS and it would help develop UE4 on PS4, which would be a very good thing.
Gears seemed to work well enough for MS and it would help develop UE4 on PS4, which would be a very good thing.
Nightengale
Member
Wait, so they're self-publishing a AAA title all by themselves?
Tencent paid like $330 million for 40% of the company so they have a lot of cash.
Wishmaster92
Member
i swear every time... Just had the samaritan avatar a couple of days ago too. I hope it becomes a game.
Zeyphersan
Banned
Is it AAA if they're independently publishing it?
Anticitizen One
Banned
I remember the Samaritan demo looking really cool. Kind of like a Super hero in the blade runner universe. I hope they make that into an actual game. Didn't Gears of War start out as a tech demo?
Surface of Me
I'm not an NPC. And neither are we.
Add in the $100 million MS paid for Gears.
assuming they don't throw two guys into their basement as the dev team and set up a kickstarter, it's safe to assume it'll have AAA production.
edit: but it would be awesome if they advertised it was an "indie" game. Fuck that shit.
Some of the enemies were in their UE3 tech demo. Whether or not they ported those models to GoW, or the other way around, I have no idea.
Even Fortnite is rather sizable now.
Vinterbird
Member
I wonder if that will ever be a thing.
I don't even care anymore. I was only interested in it since it was supposed to be the first UE4 game, but the videos I've seen don't make it look that appealing.
I think it's their unspecified GDC announcement.
I mean they have a team at Riley + seemingly all of PCF on it.
Vinterbird
Member
Tencent, F2P and an staff exodus happened.
Didn't know PCF was on that. Will be interesting to see where the game ends up.
No new hardware? I wouldn't be so sure...
DeejayKnight
Member
The Samaritan was an amazing tech demo, so it'd be awesome to see them flesh that out. And the suggestion of Sony ponying up the cash to make it a PS4 exclusive would friggin RAWK.
Miles Quaritch
Member
I'd love a game based on the Samaritan demo, but I'd want it to be actually be a futuristic detective title and not some action adventure title...
Why would Sony moneyhat a third party title?
Why would Sony moneyhat a third party title?
legacyzero
Banned
Yeah, Samaritan looked cool. But lets see Fortnite, too!
This. My only issue was trying to get over the art style... But the concept sounded so awesome.
This. My only issue was trying to get over the art style... But the concept sounded so awesome.
No it wouldn't. Moneyhatting just allows less people to enjoy the game. I hate when any company does it.
Duxxy3
Member
Last we heard that is what people can fly and some other epic people are working on.
I was initially interested in the idea of the game, but that interest really took a hit when I checked out a demonstration they did last year. It looked like something popcap would do.
It cracked me up when not long ago they actually broke silence to simply say "we're still making games you guys, we're not just working on Unreal Engine".
Why not? Its not something we consumers would want but it could be the right move to leave Microsoft behind for good.
Portugeezer
Member
Apparently it's not related to the Samaritan demo:
Give me cyberpunk or give me death.
Apparently it's not related to the Samaritan demo:
Well then, I guess that's that. Looking forward to seeing what they have in store for us.
Apparently it's not related to the Samaritan demo:
Hmm, that's definitely the same guy, so either Polygon didn't understand that the demo was just with tech demo assets, or it's "not Samaritan" in that it's "a new thing that shares visuals similarities to the tech demo, but isn't the same worldview as that".
TangoAlphaLima
Member
Apparently it's not related to the Samaritan demo:
FYI, Paul, the reason people were excited was because they thought the game was Samaritan.
Why is it so important to "leave Microsoft behind for good"? That's some pure fanboy bullshit right there.
Banjo-Kazooie
Member
Portugeezer
Member
Daaaaaamn.
Not too long ago they were advertising a community manager job for Fortnite so I seriously doubt it's cancelled. Might even get a closed beta announcement later this year.
Epic actually has an unspecified GDC announcement coming up so I suspect it's Fortnite.
I mean they have one community manager and are trying to hire a second which would be kind of weird to do right now for a game that isn't about the be unveiled since they wouldn't have anything to do.
Would you mind elaborating on this? I fail to see the connection (I even said I wouldn't want it to happen). Are you calling me a Sony fanboy here?
Damn...Apparently it's not related to the Samaritan demo:
I really want a Samaritan game.
funkystudent
Member
This is going to be a MOBA isnt it?
Everything is a MOBA now.
Everything is a MOBA now.
Paging philosoraptor
Apparently it's not related to the Samaritan demo:
I hope its mutiplatform and comes to PC at least, so we
(PC gamers)
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