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[disappeared]

Nice find, dude.

 

[exarkun]

Lies. 6 years is not a good indication and the trouble the team lead had makes it seem even more-so. I was looking forward to this game but it seems like I won't be playing it soon and if I do I probably won't enjoy the final product (sounded like there were quality issues).

 

[Cat in the Hat]

Lies. 6 years is not a good indication and the trouble the team lead had makes it seem even more-so. I was looking forward to this game but it seems like I won't be playing it soon and if I do I probably won't enjoy the final product (sounded like there were quality issues).

Bioshock was had a very long development too.

 

[Nachkebia]

It was too gray....... pffff.....

 

[cuyahoga]

Lies. 6 years…

By the way, from the production designer's LinkedIn page:

Production Designer
Team Bondi
(Computer Games industry)
September 2003 — Present (5 years 11 months)

'LA Noire'

As part of the Senior Management team, I am responsible for the design and dressing of all the ‘Hero Locations’ and overseeing the Interior Art Teams creating these locations and ensuring that they meet the needs of the Director & Lead Designer. I support both the Director and Lead Designer with design ideas/scenarios and assist with documents where necessary.

I oversee the Costume/Character Designs for the production.

Bioshock was had a very long development too.

That was what, three or four years that started and ended before this game came out? Don't think that is a good comparison. And to my knowledge, a publisher never dropped Irrational. Brendan previously went overbudget and missed a few dates on The Getaway prior.

From a latter 2006 Sydney Herald Post article:

The airy Pyrmont warehouse that is home to the games development company Team Bondi could be the modern renaissance studio. Team Bondi has been working for more than two years on a $30 million film noir game for Sony called L.A. Noire, inspired by the work of hardboiled crime authors Raymond Chandler and James Ellroy.

In a vast space that the company is struggling to fill with qualified staff, young programmers, writers, designers and artists, including a few women, sit around clusters of desks. At the centre of this quiet, concentrated energy is game director Brendan McNamara, who pads around the office in his sneakers.

The burly fortysomething with shaved head and gentle voice is described by his peers as a perfectionist with a strong vision. They describe with respect how he created a driving game for Sony called The Getaway on which he spent exorbitant amounts of time and money capturing images of London streets so players could drive through a landscape exact in every detail.

Teams of up to 100 work in a similar way in studios across Asia, the United States and Europe. On average, a team of 50 can take up to three years to produce a game. Budgets for the glossiest releases approach $US75 million, roughly the budget of animated film Shrek 2.

Just as cinema has techniques and a language of its own, computer games also have their own language, some of it adapted from film. McNamara and his team also create new techniques. For example, actor Richard Carter has been filmed from all angles as he performs, and the resulting images merged to create a 3D version of the performance so a player can move around the character and watch from any angle. McNamara's game uses a third-person point of view, a perspective rarely used in film, where the camera is placed behind the head of the main character.

McNamara has no doubt his team creates art. "Totally," he says. He describes his emphasis on storytelling, how Team Bondi is using a 170-page script for the cinematic moments and a script of 1200 pages for the interactive parts of the game.

"We control the delivery of the information," he says. "We give players a setting and a framework, we control what they see and do. So how are we not authors?"

He compares game designers to pioneer filmmakers such as D. W. Griffith and the Lumiere brothers. "Remember that games are still very young," he says. "People who made films in the early days were technical people, too."

I wouldn't doubt they went through AUS$30 million by late 2006, and in the three years since, I can only imagine that budget is a bit bigger.

And apparently this is the protagonist (makes Nico look like a hottie in comparison):

 

[Cat in the Hat]

That was what, three or four years that started and ended before this game came out? Don't think that is a good comparison.

The game was revealed 3 or 4 years ago but the development(story, settings) on the game went back before that time.

 

[cuyahoga]

The game was revealed 3 or 4 years ago but the development(story, settings) on the game went back before that time.

It still came out within six or seven years (which, given System Shock 2, is the longest development could have been), and unlike this game, it was shown more than once in that time period. Maybe Galleon is an apt comparison.

 

[TitaniumGroceries]

It will be like too human without the hype.

I hope that's their sales pitch.

 

[cuyahoga]

It will be like too human without the hype.

So, this?

 

[Moobabe]

Sorry for the ignorant question but what is Rockstar's involvement in this? Are they publishing, developing it?

 

[SolidSnakex]

Sorry for the ignorant question but what is Rockstar's involvement in this? Are they publishing, developing it?

They're the publisher. Team Bondi (former members of Team SOHO) are the developers.

 

[Moobabe]

Here comes another one: Aren't the GTA games published by Take Two? Why doesn't Rockstar self publish if they're doing this?

 

[cuyahoga]

Here comes another one: Aren't the GTA games published by Take Two? Why doesn't Rockstar self publish if they're doing this?

Rockstar is a subsidiary of Take-Two. Are you alluding to the rumored envy of the Housers over The Getaway? Despite that, the Housers signed up Team Bondi themselves.

There can be multiple open-world franchises.

 

[Pizza Luigi]

So, this?

I remember that being on the VHS video tape I got with my N64magazine subscription. It was on there alongside trailers of Luigi's Mansion and Donkey Kong Racing.

 

[jim-jam bongs]

Have said many times 50s is a dumb period to base any open world on. It was nothing but communist paranoia. Whoever designed the game costed Sony and T2 a lot of money.

I'd agree were it not for the fact that it's inspired by Chandler and Ellroy. Read the LA Quartet and tell me that it's a dumb period for an open-world game.

 

[cuyahoga]

Have said many times 50s is a dumb period to base any open world on. It was nothing but communist paranoia.

Well, you'll be glad to find out the game takes place in 1947 then.