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Friday May 02, 2008
Inside Secret LevelI know more than a few of you are interested in what it’s like to work at a video game company, and from time to time we’ll try to give you a look at our ritzy, glamorous, fun-filled lives as gaming rockstars. Oh, wait, I’m thinking of someone else… scratch that. Anyway, yesterday I got to head over to offices of Secret Level, the studio that just developed our Iron Man game and is hard at work on Golden Axe: Beast Rider. It was my first visit to their headquarters, which is only about six blocks from the SEGA offices in San Francisco and is situated in a great location right across from AT&T Park, the home of the Giants. The building itself is brick both inside and out, and the interior workspace had a lot of character; it was fairly dark inside, but the walls are covered with concept art and posters from Golden Axe and various other games, and employees’ cubicles are also adorned with lots of pictures, action figures, and other random gaming paraphernalia. You definitely know that you’re at a gaming company when you’re inside, that’s for sure. While Mike, our Golden Axe: Beast Rider product manager, received status updates on the game from various producers and artists, I tagged along and took a bunch of pictures, which I’ve posted on our Flickr account here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23380910@N04/sets/72157604845979266/ There are some decent Beast Rider concept art shots in there, as well as a look at a few computer screens that have various animatics and render art on them. There are a couple other office interior shots as well as a good shot (poached from the Secret Level website) from the roof of the building, showing the ballpark across the street. Finally, I’ve thrown in two exclusive preview screenshots and two new pieces of concept art from the game, so you can get a clearer idea of how Beast Rider is shaping up. As for experiencing the game itself, I didn’t see any specific gameplay, but the art and renders I saw were pretty unique, and I did see a demo of Tyris riding one particular beast that will deal some severe swipe damage with its claws. There are several types of beast mounts in the game, each with its own strengths and weaknesses, and my bet is that there will be points in the game where you have to ride a specific beast in order to accomplish certain goals — but that’s just a hunch. FYI, our SEGA of America community team (Clumsy, EggShen and myself) are off on Sunday to London to meet with our European counterparts, so we’ll be a bit scarce for the next week. I’ll be back after that with tons of photos of Stonehenge, the Tower of London, and Shakespeare’s birthplace, which I know is all you guys want to see from our big England trip. Until then, happy gaming…
Posted by SegaDawg in SEGA on 1:40:45PM May 02, 2008
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Comment # 1
Hope you all have a safe trip to Europe, and remember to take pics of the PLAYSEGA Billing server so people can have fun photo shopping it in certain situations! =D
Posted by Shadiwulf on May 2nd, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Comment # 2
Be sure to take photos of Hardian’s Wall if you can! And have a very safe and fun trip in Europe, can’t wait to see you back!
Posted by Shenmaster777 on May 2nd, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Comment # 3
hey, i like the ideas coming up but something has been bothering me still, what will be the next idea for sonic? is it just going to be another copy of every other adventure? same amount of active characters? same speedy gameplay? or is the next adventure going to be different, is it going to be fresh? new enemies, new paths, new story?
Posted by Stephen on May 3rd, 2008 at 11:51 am
Comment # 4
Have fun with the with the guys in the UK – they’re a nice bunch of people there.
-Get them to take you to the Bavarian Beerhouse – you’ll definitely have a good time ;o)
(check their Flickr page, they have images there from an event)
Have a good time.
Posted by ~G~ on May 3rd, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Comment # 5
Ironman is crap… Secret Level are crap. Why would Sega close down Sega Racing Studio instead of Secret Level? What a stupid mistake.
I’m going to be so f’ing angry when Secret Level ruins Golden Axe which they so obviously will do.
Why is it with Sega that every 1 step forward is followed by 2 steps back?
Sega needs to sell Secret Level and buy Obsidian and Gearbox.
Posted by Ryan/Sharky on May 5th, 2008 at 5:38 am
Comment # 6
The concept images look really nice at least
Posted by GutsGO on May 5th, 2008 at 6:30 am
Comment # 7
Sharky,
While you are entitled to your comments and I don’t wish to stifle any valid opinions here, it would be nice if you posted more constructive observations rather than just dismissing something as being ‘crap.’ I (as well as hopefully most of our readers) am more interested in an exchange of substantive ideas and opinions, especially if someone has a decidedly negative stance on something. That being said, care to elaborate on your post so we can better know where you’re coming from?
Posted by SegaDawg on May 6th, 2008 at 3:01 am
Comment # 8
What I beleive Sharky is trying to say is that he feels somewhat outraged over the fact that the british studio Sega Racing Studio was shut down over, presumably, the lackluster performance of it’s debut title, Sega Rally, also known stateside as Sega Rally Revo.
Especially in light of Sega Rally Revo having been praised by critics, unlike the official Iron Man video game which so far has earned mixed reviews.
He’s also displeased with some of the elements in the upcoming Golden Axe: Beast Rider, as all of us have our own doubts and in some way are a tad scared over the fact that some titles may or may not translate well into a next generation experience.
But anyway, looking at some of the photos on Flickr, I must say that the concept art does look mighty impressive.
There’s a weird medieval Mad-Max vibe emanating from this some of those photos.
Posted by Carlos on May 7th, 2008 at 8:03 am
Comment # 9
Here is what I am getting at SegaDawg,
First of all it is very obvious that Secret Level weren’t picked up by Sega of America because of their talent, it was due to them being conveniently close to the SoA headquarters, which only goes to show money is more on Sega of Americas agenda then quality games when it should be money though quality games.
This is backed up by the fact that Ironman the game is an extremely poor game, I’ll back that up with some reviews:
Playstation: The Official Magazine (US) 4/10
IGN 3/10
1UP 3/10
Not lets move onto Golden Axe, Not only does the game look pretty bland and boring from screenshots, it seems to re-use textures from Ironman and it has nothing that appealing about it what so ever. The character redesigns are awful and have no hint of their original designs not to mention the lack of multi player co-op in a Golden Axe game is just blasphemy, not to mention putting tits in a game as a selling point is just lame. I could go on.
As far as I can see, Sega of Japan are doing their bit to make some really awesome Sega games and Sega of Europe are too and would be well on the way to rebuilding Segas reputation as a great developer but Sega of America are just taking the easy way out and ruining one of Segas classic franchise and buying up crappy development teams like Secret Level.
If you can’t cancel Golden Axe then just rename it Beast Riders so we can all just forgot about it and it wont ruin Segas reputation anymore then has already been done.
Finally, The best thing Sega of America has done so far is work with Obsidian and Gearbox, don’t let them fall into the hands of EA or Activision like Bioware did so you have even less good developers to work with. Sega West have said many times they aren’t done buying new studios and they are always looking out for new talent. Well there they are, staring you right in the face.
Posted by Ryan/Sharky on May 7th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Comment # 10
Secret Level, meh…The England trip sounds more exciting.
Posted by rf switch on May 9th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Comment # 11
I really don’t know why SEGA don’t try to by one of the good developer around the world?like Gearbox Software.Sega should change it’s way.I hope..
Posted by Soheil on May 12th, 2008 at 12:41 am
Comment # 12
To be fair, I think Sega couldn’t be more clear when they have told countless times that Golden Axe: Beast Rider would be an Action RPG, not a straight-up hack&slash game.
So it doesn’t come as a surprise that’s why things like art direction, character design and gameplay may change since it’s aimed at a new generation of gamers, especially those unfamiliar with the Golden Axe series…
Posted by Carlos on May 12th, 2008 at 3:13 am
Comment # 13
Ah yes, Golden Axe…that also-ran ’80s medieval beat-em-up. If Sega of Japan were developing the new one, maybe I would pay attention. Maybe. I don’t play RPGs one way or the other. I visit Sega.com looking for updates on the twitch games, because that is what they have always done best, and I am perpetually disappointed. Valkyria looks beautiful, but it’s not in the same pond as Virtua Fighter.
I don’t blame Secret Level for Iron Man being cr…er, not good. Tie-in games are tie-in games, and no matter how talented you are, you will always have a rotten tie-in game if you rush it to stores alongside the tie-in toys. Regardless, I don’t know what Sega sees in these guys, and I agree that their flourishing versus Sega Racing Studio’s closing is highly suspect. Those in charge of Sega right now are having pipe dreams of EA-style success, trying their best to make Sega “hip” and “Western” and yet losing even more money than they did when Sega’s business model was “antiquated” and “Japanese.” I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Perhaps I am an automaton and can do neither.
But I digress. What cheeses me off most is all the time I spent waiting for the Gamers’ Day embargo to be lifted today, only to find out that not a single recent arcade game has has been announced for consoles yet. I had convinced myself that Virtua Cop 3 for Wii was a sure thing, given that it’s been the most-requested Sega light-gun game port for ages now–despite being vastly inferior to Ghost Squad, gameplay-wise.
“Nonsense, boy! Why, Ghost Squad’s unveiling at the last Gamer’s Day was just meant to butter you up for Space Wars: Earth Siege Assault on Aliens.”
Erm, thanks…but I don’t play RPGs…
I miss the arcade ports badly, and I know they’re not constantly in the pipeline, in accordance with Sega’s new and improved, Westernified bizness model. Then again, Sega could be working on one now but might not be not ready to unveil it until E3. But how would I know? Can’t Sega throw me a bone here, like, “Yes, we are making new ports of as-yet-unnamed recent arcade games,” or “Don’t count on it, you mouth-breathing nostalgic”? I get the feeling like I either became a Sega fan ten years too late, or else became a Sega fan at the right time for the wrong reasons. I’m eager to play Sonic Unleashed, but what’s got my back between then and Sonic Unleashed 2?
Posted by JetDog on May 16th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Comment # 14
Any chance you guys know if Sega is making a new Jet Set Radio Future sequel for the next gen consoles … if not… you should. I’d buy 5
Posted by Phenom on May 16th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Comment # 15
Will we be seeing any other offices like this?
Posted by Shenmaster777 on June 3rd, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Comment # 16
JetDog,
you would be surprised to know that Sega game sales have been getting bigger and better for Sega over these past years, slowly taking up a 4th place as largest third party in the market.
33 million dollars in the red is hardly anyhting compared to the tens of millions lost during the era of Dreamcast and Saturn.
I would also remind you that many publishers today which are considered the utlimate ones also had many financial holes burnt in this years, look at Electronic Arts, for example, their losses are almost as much as the entire Sega-Sammy parent company total losses.
Taking into account tht Sega-Sammy as a whole also includes movie and television studios, music labels, internet services and arcade machines division.
I hope that puts things into a proper perspective…
Years late or not, I don’t know… Right now Sega seems to be everybody’s favorite whipping boy and it doesn’t help that bad financial news from Sega gets everybody worked up, while actual good Sega news gets buried.
Ultimately, it doesn’t help either that some Sega fans make too much of a big case.
Take in Atari’s message boards, one topic bashing Matrix: Path of Neo over and over again only to have a moderator reply “You know, it’s just a game.”
In Nintendo and Segaland, this would simply spark an all-out outrage and online carnage…
One can also wonder what do gamers actually gain in labelling this or that game as terrible or bad, sometimes even before it’s out.
What do you gain by beating Secret Level with a stick by saying Iron Man is a bad game over and over? If you don’t like, then you shouldn’t actually buy it… Buying the game then crying about it later kinda defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?
And judging by the sales figures, I must say that Iron Man seems to be pleasing it’s target audience, which is the people who enjoyed the movie.
Now for Golden Axe: Beast Rider, it isn’t fair to kick it down, even before it’s actually released. Let Sega at the very least issue a demo first, so you can actually have some legitimate complaint.
Posted by Carlos on June 4th, 2008 at 7:38 am
Comment # 17
i want some questions answered. i have golden axe: beast rider, i played through it, and i loved it, better than what critics first gave it. i give it a 9 out of 10, and i just merely need to know, there was talk about a sequel that would have multiplayer. i imagine that you have made many advancements to the game, an i would love to see it, but i need to know, is the sequel still in planning to come out? or should i just not worry about it anymore? like one of my favorite series, turok, i got the new game and loved it, then they cancelled the sequel, i am in high hopes that you are still working on it!
Posted by Nick on October 22nd, 2010 at 10:35 am