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TheVoidDragon · Aug 22, 2013

So, many people, including me, were very disappointed to see that Evil Genius would be getting a sequel in the form of a Facebook/Zynga game. Turns out this is not true, Evil Genius online is not the game that Rebellion were hyping for the past few months. A true Evil Genius Sequel is coming soon.

This is a reply to an Open letter to Rebellion from the Evil Genius Facebook fan page:

Dear Evil Genius 2 Facebook group members and Evil Genius gamers everywhere,
Thank you for taking the time to prepare your open letter on behalf of the community.
We were overwhelmed by the response to the announcement of Evil Genius Online (EGO). Not only were all the closed beta slots taken in less than 24 hours, but we saw the Evil Genius community spring into action. Whether it was through emails, tweets, the online petition, in forums or through your open letter, you made the effort to let us know what Evil Genius means to you as gamers. We wanted to reply to you directly, and although we don’t have time to cover all your questions hopefully this letter will leave you a lot clearer about the future of Evil Genius!

So why did we make Evil Genius Online?

For independent studios like Rebellion to survive it’s important that we look beyond the console, PC and mobile platforms we know so well. Zynga and Facebook are hubs with millions of gamers who can start playing any game in just a couple of clicks. There are almost no barriers. This is why free-to-play is so exciting for both developers and gamers, and yes, it means we can bring Evil Genius to a new audience too.

But hasn’t Evil Genius been on Facebook before?

Yes - Evil Genius: WMD - and it wasn’t up to scratch. We know fans and gamers deserved better. Evil Genius Online is a completely different game and we’ve learned some invaluable lessons since then.

Will social mechanics undermine the traditional Evil Genius gameplay?

While EGO will obviously attract a free-to-play audience, we wanted to create an experience that could be enjoyed by many types of gamers, including Evil Genius fans. Crucially the game doesn’t feature an ‘energy’ mechanic which would limit your play time each day. EGO is firmly mission based, with an open ended story that evolves as the gamer progresses. Yes, each mission takes time to complete and objectives can be accelerated with the use of virtual currency (no pressure applied), but gamers can play for as long as they want and completely redesign their lair to their heart’s content at any time. We honestly believe many of you will really enjoy EGO, but we also understand that we’ll still be disappointing some of you too.

So is this the ‘sequel’ that has been rumoured on Twitter?

When Jason – Rebellion’s CEO and co-founder - tweeted earlier in the year about a potential follow up to Evil Genius, he wasn’t talking about Evil Genius Online, which was already in development by a small team here in our Oxford studio.
We’ve always wanted to make a fully-featured PC follow-up. We’ve taken concepts for an Evil Genius sequel to publishers before but we weren’t able to secure the funding we needed. However since then, we’ve looked into alternative ways to get this game funded and created. We are going to make this happen. And it’s going to be soon.
We’ve been watching the Evil Genius community for some time now, and we’re sorry that we couldn’t tell you earlier about our plans. If anything, your enthusiasm over the last couple of weeks has galvanized our efforts!
In the next few days a key member from our Oxford studio will be in touch. They want to engage with the EG community and get you involved in the first steps we take towards the next Evil Genius game on PC.

Please make them welcome, and don’t be scared to share your ideas!
Yours Forever Evily
The Rebellion team

I am very happy with this.

Baron_Calamity · Aug 22, 2013

So kickstarter with steam early access?

TheVoidDragon · Aug 22, 2013

Baron_Calamity said:
So kickstarter with steam early access?

Kickstarter seems likely, unless they somehow found a publisher for funding. The letter suggests they still haven't, though.

Chojin · Aug 22, 2013

Oh man, early access steam kickstarter? I'm not into kickstarters but I'd so jump into one for the first time for this.

Super duper sigh of relief.

Also sounds like backpeddling

Boerseun · Aug 22, 2013

I realise the Evil Genius franchise has its fans, but Rebellion is sitting on a goldmine of 2000 AD properties with huge potential for converting into games. We're not just talking about Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper either.

Imagine games based on ABC Warriors, Strontium Dog, Nikolai Dante, Sinister Dexter, Nemesis the Warlock, Slaine, Caballistics Inc., Durham Red, etc. Heck, Gears of War already feels like a Glimmer Rats adaptation, use it as a template and make a third-person shooter officially tied to the property.

I always thought that was the whole point of them buying 2000 AD, i.e. that they'd have access to a huge store of ready made characters from which to develop games. Instead we had one slightly-better-than-mediocre Judge Dredd game and one admittedly great Rogue Trooper game, and that's it.

Come on, Rebellion, time to start cranking.

mclem · Aug 22, 2013

Boerseun said:
Imagine games based on ABC Warriors, Strontium Dog, Nikolai Dante, Sinister Dexter, Nemesis the Warlock, Slaine, Caballistics Inc., Durham Red, etc. Heck, Gears of War already feels like a Glimmer Rats adaptation, use it as a template and make a third-person shooter officially tied to the property.

When I was at Rebellion, I did work in part on a proof of concept demo of a Glimmer Rats game. Trying to recall the exact timings, but I think it was before GoW.

Boerseun · Aug 22, 2013

mclem said:
When I was at Rebellion, I did work in part on a proof of concept demo of a Glimmer Rats game. Trying to recall the exact timings, but I think it was before GoW.

Thank you for the information.

Could you maybe tell us how the decision making, with regards to deciding upon which projects to pursue, worked at Rebellion during your time there?

They've always seemed like a studio that isn't quite living up to their potential. As if they are holding back for some or other reason.

Mobius and pet octopus · Aug 22, 2013

I still have evil genius installed on steam... I don't want to lose my save for the next random time I feel like playing the game.

Haunted · Aug 22, 2013

mclem · Aug 23, 2013

Boerseun said:
Thank you for the information.

Could you maybe tell us how the decision making, with regards to deciding upon which projects to pursue, worked at Rebellion during your time there?

They've always seemed like a studio that isn't quite living up to their potential. As if they are holding back for some or other reason.

Well, I wasn't really privy to much, but as I understood it - and this may be wrong - projects came in two sorts; either ones that publishers wanted to make which we got the development contract for (generally ports of licensed stuff. The Simpsons Game, Battlefront, Gun PSP), and games that *we* wanted to make which we had to convince a publisher to fund to completion. Those latter ones were the tricky one - we'd produce a pitch demo (proof of concept of a level or so) and, well, shop it around. The games that came out were the ones where the publishers were convinced to bite.

In short: Money needed to keep coming in, and if we couldn't convince a publisher to publish the sort of title you wanted to see, we had to instead produce the sort of title we ended up doing, because those brought in milestone payments. Given that I ultimately left Rebellion due to being made redundant after one deal fell through, it's not like there was spare money around to devote to development without a firm backing already lined up.

Cels · Aug 23, 2013

Haunted said:

yeah i thought of the team first before realizing they were talking about the game

ZoddGutts · Aug 23, 2013

Evil Genius by Rebellion, no thanks.

TheVoidDragon · Aug 23, 2013

ZoddGutts said:
Evil Genius by Rebellion, no thanks.

What's the problem? There games may have been fairly average, but i don't think any of them have actually been bad games.

spiritfox · Aug 23, 2013

Yes! Loved the first game and wish there were more islands or a random island option.

I hope they do the series justice.

AppleMIX · Aug 23, 2013

So using the IOS money to bank roll a proper sequel?

Baron_Calamity · Aug 23, 2013

TheVoidDragon said:
What's the problem? There games may have been fairly average, but i don't think any of them have actually been bad games.

Also I believe most of the people who made the first game work at Rebellion now.

TheVoidDragon · Aug 23, 2013

Baron_Calamity said:
Also I believe most of the people who made the first game work at Rebellion now.

I'm not sure, i haven't seen anything about that. This whole thing about Evil Genius Online has kind of convinced me that there is an actual chance of the game being good, as it shows they actually listen and care about what their fans think, and took the effort to reply to them.

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