Creative Assembly console game research thread.

[Sharky]

I'm excited for this game, very excited. The Creative Assemblys Total War series is nothing short of amazing and one of my favourite series ever. I'm expecting something amazing.

So I want to compile all infomation I can find on it. No matter how small...

We are currently hiring for the following vacancies:

Console Team:
Lead Designer
Senior Designer
Lead Engine Programmer
Games/Tools Programmer
Graphics Programmer
Game Play Programmer
3D FX Artist
3D Environment Artist
3D Character Artist
Senior 3D Character Artist

What can we take from this?
-Character based
-Probably using their own engine

SEGA greenlight major console investment
July 19, 2010 CA News No Comments

SEGA have okayed The Creative Assembly to develop a major new console title. Currently in prototyping stage the title and genre are secret but will constitute SEGA’s largest current budget in internal development outside of Japan. Using technology and tools developed over the last two years the team will now grow substantially. Studio Director Tim Heaton said ‘The Creative Assembly are known for Total War and we are privileged to have a skilled large team working to deliver Shogun 2: Total War. However we have moved forward with our console team and spent a lot of time developing an infrastructure that works for them and during that process developed an incredibly strong demo. It is great that we are getting the perfect backing from SEGA – we have the time and the resources to deliver an awesome game’.

-Must be a very large budget considering the Total War budget is usually very big as it is.

-Long development time?

Our console team is currently developing an unannounced AAA title. This exciting new flagship SEGA game is green lit, fully funded and has a healthy development timeline in place. Currently in pre-production we are looking to hire the best of the best to expand our world beating team on this new franchise.

-AAA title
-They believe it to be a 'flagship title'
-It is a new franchise, not a sequal.


Somewhere there was a quote of maybe Mike Hayes saying it was the best pre-alpha demo he'd ever seen... Might not have been Hayes. Anyone got the quote or know where it was?


Anyway, EXCITE.

[Sharky]

Glad to see so many people interested in this topic! But please don't all shout at once.

Anyway, I found some pretty interesting things in the job discriptions for the Console team.

Lead Designer
Ideal:
Experience working on 3rd person action titles
Online multiplayer design experience

Senior Designer
At least one of the above must be 3rd person
Must have experience designing online multiplayer.

(Sharkys note: Saft to say it is 3rd person and may have online multiplayer)


GRAPHICS PROGRAMMER
A thorough understanding of all things PS3 including:
Real time PS3 lighting, shadowing, deferred lighting/shading, edge geometry, edge post processing, PS3 specific memory optimisations for multi-platform releases.

(Sharky note: PS3 could be the lead platform?)

Game Play Programmer
The successful applicant will have a passion for action games and will be part of a growing team building a bespoke game engine for 360, PS3 and PC.

Ideal:
Multi-player game play development

(Sharky note: Saft to say they are planning an Action game with at least some multiplayer functions)

[Sega Uranus]

I do not know why we should get too excited yet when we know pretty much nothing. Total Warrior and Viking were both supposed to be new and big AAA flagship franchises but only had one release each. I am interested, sure, but this is not too much to go by.

I liked Viking a lot. A whole lot actually. Got all of the achievements in it and everything. Would really like something very similar to it.

[Sharky]

I dont know why we shouldnt be excited.

Spartan and Viking were both pretty good games, in fact I think Viking was very underrated. Enjoyed it a lot. Total War games are some of the best games ever made.

Not to mention every little indication of this game shows that it is going to be something big. The biggest budget ever spent on a game outside of Sega Japan? AAA? One of the best developers in the industry? Someone in an interview recently said it was the best pre-alpha demo they have ever seen... Cant find the interview now though.

If you liked Viking so much I cant think of a good reason why you wouldnt be excited. It is bound to be along the same lines.

[Aki-at]

I'm interested in seeing it first before I start hyping it.

Either way, glad to see Creative Assembly be given the chance to expand on, Viking was on a pretty tight budget and was rushed in the end to not make it go up against GTAIV so hopefully with this having a bigger budget and more confidence, I'm expecting this game to be even better.

[STORM!]

They talks like they are not part of Sega. The Japanese company is just giving us the money. Sounds like that... :|

 Are they really 100% owned by Sega?

 Nice to see them developing for home consoles, since I hate PC games and have 0% of interests on the games they are making for PCs. Also, I hate RTS!

 I was expecting Viking to land in Japan, but it never did... and it was not an "awesome looking" game for my tastes.

 They should make a huge revival for the Altered Beast series as the Greek mythology and make Viking as the pillar of the Nordic mythology for Sega. XDDD

[Sharky]

Yes they are owned 100% by Sega. They are a Sega Europe development team.

[Deefy]

Sharky, perhaps the article is this:

Over the past year the company has worked on its console technology and explored game ideas which would move the team away from the Total War spinoffs on which it had cut its teeth. Finally, the studio brought a demo to Sega - "probably the best early demo I've seen in 15 years," Heaton claims, a statement given some weight by his background at EA Partners - and had their project green-lit, signalling that it was time to ramp up the firm's console team.

the man interviewed is Tim Heaton one of the 2 Studio Director at THE CA, the other is Jim Woods.

other quote:

"The next phase, for us, is to have two teams that are totally separate," says Heaton. "That's pretty exciting - it's also nice to be the only internally-owned Sega studio in the West that's doing a console game. Sega have had good and bad experiences with their external developers, and I think they're at a time when they want to double down on their key franchises - Sonic, Total War, and so on. So it's great to see them investing in console work here."

"I know for a fact that they want to invest in a team and tech that they can take to the next generation as well," he continues. "Our aim is certainly to spend time getting the right team together and then, while this game will be for this generation - almost certainly 360 and PS3, unless we have some surprises along the way - to move them on to the next generation."

What exactly the game will be remains a major secret at this stage, with Heaton refusing to be drawn even on whether it's existing or original IP. He's clearly excited, however, by the scale of the project, describing Sega's investment as being substantial, both in terms of time and money.

and

They've looked at this studio and decided that it's where they need to invest," he says. "They want quality, and they've been working with some external parties who couldn't deliver that - whereas Total War is a fantastic example of that kind of quality."

"You know, quality is talked about as if it's either a sheen that you put on at some point, or some kind of magic dust that just happens because you say it enough... Actually, it's just bloody hard work, and it's about looking at every new job application you get and asking whether this person can add quality to the team - not if he's fast, or if he's just competent, but if he does quality work. Because of that, Sega are happy to put huge amounts of investment into us - because at the end of the day, a 90 per cent Metacritic rating is what's going to make the difference to Sega's bottom line."

With the new console project presently at the prototyping stage - which will last through until early next year - the company is now busy recruiting to bring the team up to size. "We're at 137 people at the moment," Heaton says, "and still growing. We've moved premises pretty recently, and we've got space in this building to grow - we could reach 200. We're doing a few bits of recruitment for Total War, as needs must, but it's mostly for the console team - that's across the board, in art, programming, design, the whole lot."

the entire article is at this URL:http://http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/creative-lead-interview but you need to subscribe to the site;-)

[Alex Supersonic]

A new tweet from Creative Assembly, maybe someone is interested in appying for the job?

"The Creative Assembly is recruiting for a variety of positions on an unannounced console project. Visit www.creative-assembly.com for info!"

http://creative-assembly.com/?page_id=10

[Berto]

Why are there two developer for Halo Wars 2 ?
I though it was developed by Creative Assembly alone, but turned out there is 343 Industries too.


https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-gb/games/halo-wars-2

[Centrale]

Why are there two developer for Halo Wars 2 ?
I though it was developed by Creative Assembly alone, but turned out there is 343 Industries too.

Probably just because 343 provided a lot of the assets and reference materials.

[Berto]

Probably just because 343 provided a lot of the assets and reference materials.

Ahh.. I see, that makes sense now.

[Tad]

Just a thought, but they have said they've been throwing ideas around for a sequel to Alien Isolation? With 343 doing the assets, maybe CA are in post production for Alien Isolation 2?

Either way, it's a real shame to see CA mostly doing RTS games when they're clearly more then capable of much more.

[Team Andromeda]

Just a thought, but they have said they've been throwing ideas around for a sequel to Alien Isolation? With 343 doing the assets, maybe CA are in post production for Alien Isolation 2?

Either way, it's a real shame to see CA mostly doing RTS games when they're clearly more then capable of much more.

CA have over 2 lines and I bet the Alien team have been working on their own project. 343 Industries control all the story and art side of things Ect  and so that's their main roll in the game. I would imagine 343 are them self's too busy with the next Halo and no doubt making a Scorpion Halo  to have any sort of hand in the helping CA develope wars 2

[Sharky]

Woah! This thread is a blast from the past!

I thought that the team who made Alien Isolation are the same ones making Halo Wars 2 now.

I would kill for Alien Isolation 2 though... Spesifically I want a multiplayer campaign, not co-op, no working togeather, (unless you want too.) Starting in seporate locations and simply trying to save yourself... If that means setting traps for other players or redirecting the Alien to find them... All the better! (Also give it a VR option!)