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October 2000
Biggles
<font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
in Zocalo v2.0
Can anyone remember what happened in October, 2000 (spefically, on or around the 6th). We had a huge spike of new users join us then (like about 373). It was the second biggest month for new users after September 1999, and ahead of October 1999. Perhaps one of you is still around to tell us why? :)
Comments
Here are the dates and new user registrations:
October 04th, 2000 1
October 05th, 2000 27
October 06th, 2000 95
October 07th, 2000 52
October 08th, 2000 46
October 09th, 2000 34
October 10th, 2000 31
October 11th, 2000 11
October 12th, 2000 5
And here's a thread posted by Rick on the 4th (body here cause I can't find the actual thread anymore, it's probably vanished - if someone has a copy of the entire thread let me know):
[quote]Sleeping in Light...an update from Sector 14 Studios (posted 10-04-2000 02:54 PM)
To the Into the Fire fans, and those who’ve offered support over the past year—
These last two weeks have been very difficult on us at S14, and we wanted to be sure there were no options left before making this announcement.
It is with deepest regret that I must inform you that our efforts to finish “Babylon 5: Into the Fire” have failed.
It is not due to problems with Sector 14 Studios, nor is it due to lack of interest by publishers, or lack of funding, but rather the current holder of the materials recently informed us they were no longer interested in selling the game assets. Appeals to the highest levels of management at Havas in France were not able to change their stance.
This outcome is unfortunate, for several reasons. Those of you close to the project know just how revolutionary the game design and gameplay would have been, and given the rather stagnant performance of space combat games, many to us knew in our heart of hearts that ItF had real potential to turn the market around, and get some of the life that the first person shooter market has been enjoying for the past 3 years. Technology-wise, we had many features in the design that are now becoming common-use tools such as multithreading and hierarchical AI—it was exciting to push the boundaries of technology in that way. For the fan of Babylon 5, it is another blow—the last remaining unseen footage of the cast and crew will remain unseen. This is a tragedy in itself.
What does this mean for Babylon 5 gaming? What’s next for Sector 14 Studios? Time will tell. More than a few of us have put our blood, sweat, and tears into this project. Personally, I’ve been working on this as a second job, logging in 10 plus hours a day for the past year on top of the demands of a full-time engineering career. Sector 14 Studios is a labor of love for us, and we won’t let it die. It is as much a way of thinking as it is a development studio—we’ve shared a special bond with our fans, and we hope that bond continues in the future when we are ready to start anew. We have ideas where we might go, but for now we need a rest—it’s a time of closure, as many of us have been putting 110% into ItF for over 3 years. In the meantime, we’d be happy to hear from any of you. Please feel free to send us your thoughts at [email]sector14studios@yahoo.com[/email] or contact me directly.
For those of you getting started in the games industry, and are interested in what it takes to propose a game to a publisher, we’d be happy to offer what knowledge we’ve taken out of this entire process. Truth be known, the work there is almost as much as what you spend immersed in working on issues with multithreading your sim, renderer, and AI successfully, or how to squeeze a few more FPS out of your engine to let your artists’ work shine. The more you know about your market and how your game fits into it, the better. I may post a “game neutral” version of our business and completion plans, if there is enough interest to do so.
We have built some good friendships, business and otherwise, over the past year. At this time we would like to extend our deepest gratitude to those who helped us make it as far as we did:
Deepest thanks to Dan Foy, Randy Littlejohn, Marc Hudgins, Christy Marx, David Gehringer, John Trauger, Jack Nichols, Keith Landes, Victor Crews, John Walker, Jeff Reitman, Benito Gonzalez, Robin Phanco, Dave Artis, and Byrt Martinez – you are the model of a great development team, and all it can accomplish. Even though we did not get the results we hoped fore, take pride in the work we did, and rest easy knowing now that we did indeed do all we could to save the game.
A special thanks to Scott Johnson at Warner Interactive—you couldn’t ask for a better person to work with on a licensed property. We wish you success in your future endeavors, and hope that we might partake in some of them when the time is right.
Thanks also go out to American McGee, Barett Alexander, RJ Berg, Rick Johnson, Scott Draeker for helping us build our network of publishing contacts
Thanks to Mike Abrash for remembering me from the briefest of meetings, and helping us get in touch with the X-box team at Microsoft.
Additional thanks to Will Binder, John Carmack, John “Milo” Dimattio, Steve “Blue” Healsip, Sean “Redwood” Martin, Jack “Morbid” Matthews, and Alisa Schreibman.
Deepest gratitude to Janne S. Pionte, the creator of S14’s logo, and arguably one of Finland’s best artists.
Thanks also to the many developers in the game community who offered their words of support through this year of fire. Those words helped keep us going.
A special thanks to Mike Klumper at HD interactive – A true gentleman by the definition of the word. It’s one of my greatest hopes that someday we’ll be able to work on a project together.
And, of course, our thanks go out to J. Michael Straczynski. Thank you, Joe, for giving inspiration to us all and letting us play in the backyard of your imagination.
But most of all, we’d like to thank Lorien Newman, Kevin “Drazi Guy” Mac Neil, Michael “Grinner” Lu, “Sanfam,” Vesa “Freeze”,Juusola, and all the fans at [url]http://www.firstones.com[/url] and [url]http://www.b5itf-finland.org[/url] who have supported our efforts in the most passionate way. Without you, we wouldn’t have made it this far. You are the Army of Light. And you made the world stand up and take notice.
To the fans- I’d like to encourage you to support those who supported us: HD Interactive, EA, Gathering of Developers, Microsoft X-box, Raven Software, and id Software. All of these people are working hard to bring innovation to gaming, just as we have.
The game may die, but Babylon 5…Babylon 5 endures.
Best regards,
Richard G. Brewer
CEO, Sector 14 Studios
[email]richardgbrewer@hotmail.com[/email]
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"...In the end it would hold because what is built endures. And what is loved endures.
And Babylon 5...Babylon 5 endures." -- Delenn in the Babylon 5 episode Rising Star
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I'll do it. Eventually.
Worf
GAAH!!!!