Overstrike [FUSE] art style changed because Cartoons = Kids Game.

I read this a while ago but it wasn't posted on here, so I guess I would.

Reason why Overstrike was changed to FUSE was because the developers found out that the direction Overstrike was going for, gave the vibe that the game was being targeted to little kids and those in their early-teens when it wasn't.

"The game started out with a much more stylized and campy direction. We were actually going for something on the level of Ratchet & Clank, except with humans, Allgeier said. Maybe it was going to appeal to gamers who, we thought at the time, might be in their late teens. The industrys changed quite a bit We would focus test the game in front of a lot of gamers, and get their opinion. These are people that regularly play PlayStation 3 and Xbox games. We started to discover that everyone thought this was a game for their younger brother. We would hear this from 12-year-olds. So we decided that we needed to make a game that had an older appeal."

http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/9698/article/overstrike-s-aesthetic-evolution-into-fuse-was-for-older-appeal/

Now a days, a mature and/or hardcore game must have a generic art style, with tons gore, tons of guns, TONS OF EXPLOSIONS!!, and tons of meh language.

Welcome to our industry.

I read this the other day. All Insomniac has to do was put a brown filter over it with some excessive HDR Bloom and it would have been considered fine by "mature" gamers.

Never have I heard of a focus testing improving something.

I don't see the issue here really, most kids games do have more.. ugh light hearted visuals?

"We started to discover that everyone thought this was a game for their younger brother. We would hear this from 12-year-olds."

ShadowDeathX

Well there's your damn problem Insomniac! Don't listen to twelve year olds.

I blame SNIPER (aka Diesel on GT) for this :)

the funny part is, now that the art style has been changed, i have zero interest in this game :lol:

So the very first game Insomniac that for the first time appears on a 360...is lamented as being kiddy?
At this point...f*ck it, just make Call of Duty and other mature stuff a 360exclusive so we can keep the trash off of the PS3 while the mature gamers can mature while they masturbate on the mature language and explosions.

[QUOTE="ShadowDeathX"]

"We started to discover that everyone thought this was a game for their younger brother. We would hear this from 12-year-olds."

Phoenix534

Well there's your damn problem Insomniac! Don't listen to twelve year olds.

Remind me, how popular is Team Fortress 2 again?funsohng

Thats what I was thinking. TF2 has colorful graphics with funny characters and it is definitely not popular with the kids. Honestly, I bet more causal kids play Halo and COD than TF2.

Insomniac *CAUGH* EA *CAUGH* are just trying to market it to the widest audience.

Wow, you took advice from 12 year olds to try to make the game bland and boring so you can appeal your game to the 12 year olds........

Now your game looks terrible.

Remind me, how popular is Team Fortress 2 again?funsohng

These are people that regularly play PlayStation 3 and Xbox gamesshadowdeathx

This is the first time I've heard of the games (with an s?) looked it up, both trailers, preferred the original. I didn't think it would change too much with the change to FUSE. Boy, was I wrong. It really kind of is an example of the industry and what has happened to it... or at least what has happened to twelve year olds.

So much for standing out in a crowded genre, ROFL.

insted now it look very very boring and generic. THey had it right with the first trailer now I could give 2 craps about the game.

So, professional artists bend to the whim of 12 year olds. Very smart.

so what? i didnt want to play kiddie looking games when i was in my teens either. mems_1224

The point is that the developers wanted to target an Older Audience, but listened to 12 year olds.

what exactly did they mean by "Older"?

Wow I was excited for this game but this game is going to be S!it now. It might even get lower than RE6 did.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the state of the modern gaming industry; where 12 year olds are the deciding factor that changes the product. 12 year olds who think the game isn't 'mature' enough.

12 year olds.

Mature.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the state of the modern gaming industry; where 12 year olds are the deciding factor that changes the product. 12 year olds who think the game isn't 'mature' enough.

12 year olds.

Mature.

NuclearFlower

The System Wars mentality is taking over. :P

[QUOTE="mems_1224"]so what? i didnt want to play kiddie looking games when i was in my teens either. LegatoSkyheart

The point is that the developers wanted to target an Older Audience, but listened to 12 year olds.

what exactly did they mean by "Older"?

[QUOTE="LegatoSkyheart"]

[QUOTE="mems_1224"]so what? i didnt want to play kiddie looking games when i was in my teens either. mems_1224

The point is that the developers wanted to target an Older Audience, but listened to 12 year olds.

what exactly did they mean by "Older"?

Which typically ends up being insecure pre-teens.

I still find the concept of anyone losing interest in this game because of an artstyle change more absurd than anything in that story, really.

I still find the concept of anyone losing interest in this game because of an artstyle change more absurd than anything in that story, really.

Cherokee_Jack

I thought that too, then I looked at the trailers, since that is all there is to go on... I think-- at least it was all the research I felt like doing, and it seems like the premise of the game changed too. In FUSE they walk through enemy fire like tanks while shooting back, in Overstike, they were agile and co-operative and dodged around.

Also, there is no better way to show distaste with a developer's decision than not buying their product.

Why is everyone focusing on the 12 year olds part? He merely stated that to compound how largely mislead people were being by the artstyle.

stagnating industry is stagnating

stagnating industry is stagnating

Mario1331

[QUOTE="mems_1224"][QUOTE="LegatoSkyheart"]

The point is that the developers wanted to target an Older Audience, but listened to 12 year olds.

what exactly did they mean by "Older"?

sandbox3d

Which typically ends up being insecure pre-teens.

Remind me, how popular is Team Fortress 2 again?funsohng

[QUOTE="funsohng"]Remind me, how popular is Team Fortress 2 again?Lief_Ericson

Never have I heard of a focus testing improving something.

Thefatness16

Focus Testing almost always improves sales.

Sad, but true.

It is the reason why the film industry is currently stuck in a "Post-Content Era," where making a movie with substance is nearly impossible because no studio wants to take a risk on a film that costs them $400 Million (production + marketing costs) to release. The same thing is happening with the gaming industry.

You start talking budgets pushing $100 Million and companies decide that content be damned, they are gonna add/remove/change whatever the hell their focus groups tell them.

What an awful change.

[QUOTE="Thefatness16"]

Never have I heard of a focus testing improving something.

KingsMessenger

Focus Testing almost always improves sales.

Sad, but true.

It is the reason why the film industry is currently stuck in a "Post-Content Era," where making a movie with substance is nearly impossible because no studio wants to take a risk on a film that costs them $400 Million (production + marketing costs) to release. The same thing is happening with the gaming industry.

You start talking budgets pushing $100 Million and companies decide that content be damned, they are gonna add/remove/change whatever the hell their focus groups tell them.

Final Fantasy.

[QUOTE="KingsMessenger"]

[QUOTE="Thefatness16"]

Never have I heard of a focus testing improving something.

ConanTheStoner

Focus Testing almost always improves sales.

Sad, but true.

It is the reason why the film industry is currently stuck in a "Post-Content Era," where making a movie with substance is nearly impossible because no studio wants to take a risk on a film that costs them $400 Million (production + marketing costs) to release. The same thing is happening with the gaming industry.

You start talking budgets pushing $100 Million and companies decide that content be damned, they are gonna add/remove/change whatever the hell their focus groups tell them.

Final Fantasy.

Bananarama.

I can say things completely without context also.

[QUOTE="ConanTheStoner"]

[QUOTE="KingsMessenger"]

Focus Testing almost always improves sales.

Sad, but true.

It is the reason why the film industry is currently stuck in a "Post-Content Era," where making a movie with substance is nearly impossible because no studio wants to take a risk on a film that costs them $400 Million (production + marketing costs) to release. The same thing is happening with the gaming industry.

You start talking budgets pushing $100 Million and companies decide that content be damned, they are gonna add/remove/change whatever the hell their focus groups tell them.

KingsMessenger

Final Fantasy.

Bananarama.

I can say things completely without context also.

Actually, it was well within context. A way of agreeing with you and providing an example without a long winded answer. :P

It is the reason why the film industry is currently stuck in a "Post-Content Era," where making a movie with substance is nearly impossible because no studio wants to take a risk on a film that costs them $400 Million (production + marketing costs) to release.KingsMessenger

The hell does "post-content era" mean, anyway? Era after content?

[QUOTE="ConanTheStoner"]

Actually, it was well within context. A way of agreeing with you and providing an example without a long winded answer. :P

KingsMessenger

Notice that my original post said "Almost always."

Furthermore, unless you can provide an example/explanation beyond just "Final Fantasy," what you said means absolutely nothing.

If you are referring to FF13, then FF13 was the fastest-selling iteration of the game ever so you are FACTUALLY wrong.

:lol:

Man are you bipolar?

Somehow I think you took what I said to the extreme opposite of its meaning. I dont know how FFXIII selling well makes me wrong at all lol. As a matter of fact it would make me right, as it would make your original point right.

IM AGREEING WITH YOU.

The FF series has gone the route of focus testing over the years. Good for sales, bad for content.

Damn man, sorry for sharing a gaming related example that supports your post lol.

[QUOTE="KingsMessenger"]

It is the reason why the film industry is currently stuck in a "Post-Content Era," where making a movie with substance is nearly impossible because no studio wants to take a risk on a film that costs them $400 Million (production + marketing costs) to release.PannicAtack

The Social Network, Inception, and Hugo are the only films with budgets even remotely CLOSE to $100 million.

I wasn't saying that films with substance didn't exist, just that it is EXTREMELY difficult to get those films made... If you don't work in the industry then you don't have a god damn clue what you are talking about, but The King's Speech took decades to get made. Moneyball was adapted from a best selling book, and so was The Social Network. War Horse has Spielberg backing it. Hugo was based on a popular children's book and had Scorsese behind it. No Country For Old Men was based on a very popular book, ended up with the Coen Brothers attached and it still took several years to get made... Inception would never have been made if not for the success of The Dark Knight. Circumstances have to be perfect for a film to get made. And idea being good(or even borderline genius) is not even close to being enough. Thousands of fabulous screenplays sit in desks all around Hollywood, NEVER to be made.

Talk to ANYONE in Hollywood and they would describe the current industry as being in a "Post-Content Era." Getting funding for movies with substance is 1000 times more difficult than getting funding for some crappy Blockbuster script that is heavy on action and light on character development. And by the end of the process, most films with budgets above $75 Million end up getting run through so much crap that even if they started with "content," they have lost most of it by the time they make it into theaters. It takes a REALLY good Producing Team and a ton of patience to get something like Inception made, and even that needed a push from Christopher Nolan's post-TDK invulnerability.

PS - A "Post-Content Era" refers to the state of the current Film industry where the average Tentpole release has been boiled down to a formula that basically acts as a checklist for production. Content is stripped back, forced romantic entanglements are shoehorned into scripts, narrative exposition is reduced to the absolutely minimum, and visual spectacle is placed in the holes. It is the type of system that produces films like Battleship, Battle: Los Angeles, and Transformers.

[QUOTE="KingsMessenger"]

[QUOTE="ConanTheStoner"]

Actually, it was well within context. A way of agreeing with you and providing an example without a long winded answer. :P

ConanTheStoner

Notice that my original post said "Almost always."

Furthermore, unless you can provide an example/explanation beyond just "Final Fantasy," what you said means absolutely nothing.

If you are referring to FF13, then FF13 was the fastest-selling iteration of the game ever so you are FACTUALLY wrong.

:lol:

Man are you bipolar?

Somehow I think you took what I said to the extreme opposite of its meaning. I dont know how FFXIII selling well makes me wrong at all lol. As a matter of fact it would make me right, as it would make your original point right.

IM AGREEING WITH YOU.

The FF series has gone the route of focus testing over the years. Good for sales, bad for content.

Damn man, sorry for sharing a gaming related example that supports your post lol.

Sorry, I misread your post, and got overly defensive.

[QUOTE="ConanTheStoner"]

[QUOTE="KingsMessenger"]

Notice that my original post said "Almost always."

Furthermore, unless you can provide an example/explanation beyond just "Final Fantasy," what you said means absolutely nothing.

If you are referring to FF13, then FF13 was the fastest-selling iteration of the game ever so you are FACTUALLY wrong.

KingsMessenger

:lol:

Man are you bipolar?

Somehow I think you took what I said to the extreme opposite of its meaning. I dont know how FFXIII selling well makes me wrong at all lol. As a matter of fact it would make me right, as it would make your original point right.

IM AGREEING WITH YOU.

The FF series has gone the route of focus testing over the years. Good for sales, bad for content.

Damn man, sorry for sharing a gaming related example that supports your post lol.

Sorry, I misread your post, and got overly defensive.

No worries boss. I figured there was a misunderstanding and I guess its probably my fault for being so vague to begin with.

Toy Story / Wall-E / Lion king / mulan / tangled / The incredibles / UP / The secret world of arietti / Spirited away / howls moving castle / Pixar / disney / disney channel / Cartoon network

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