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151-535: BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton , Alberta . It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka , Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip. Since 2007, the company has been owned by American publisher Electronic Arts . BioWare specializes in role-playing video games , and achieved recognition for developing highly praised and successful licensed franchises: Baldur's Gate , Neverwinter Nights , and Star Wars: Knights of

302-545: A Sound Blaster or equivalent sound card ; basic specs for the time. However, patches were later released that added support for then-popular 3D APIs . Playmates Interactive finalized the publishing deal for a Macintosh version of MDK in August 1997, but the conversion to the Macintosh OS had already been in development for some time before that. This version was bundled with the original iMac. In December 1996, it

453-593: A database , Voice over IP , or add-in interface software; this is also known as middleware . Examples of this include SpeedTree and Havoc . Independents are software developers which are not owned by (or dependent on) a single publisher. Some of these developers self-publish their games, relying on the Internet and word of mouth for publicity. Without the large marketing budgets of mainstream publishers, their products may receive less recognition than those of larger publishers such as Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. With

604-478: A genetically engineered robotic dog, which he plans to call "Bones". After a year, Bones is fully operational, although both Bones and Kurt prefer the name Max. Despite having four arms and two legs, and being full of energy, Max proves more than a little reluctant to help Hawkins with the chores on the Dandy , proving more interested in tending to his vegetable garden . Another year passes without Hawkins making

755-403: A 60 MHz Pentium, 16 MB of RAM , 17MB of hard drive storage, an SVGA-compatible video card , and a Sound Blaster or equivalent sound card . MDK received generally positive reviews , with critics praising the gameplay , the level design , the sardonic sense of humor, the game's technical accomplishments, and the use of sniper mode. The most often repeated criticisms included that

906-495: A breakthrough until he notices streams of energy moving through the Solar System towards Earth. He sends a warning down to Earth (along with some of Max's oranges ), but it is ignored. Upon reaching Earth, the streams disgorge gigantic "Minecrawlers", city-sized vehicles designed to strip mine the natural resources from a planet, crushing anything and everything in their path. The aliens, known as "Streamriders", and under

1057-401: A class by itself." GameSpot ' s Jeff Sengstack called it "a visually exciting, mentally challenging shooter with a humorous and twisted viewpoint." He praised the wide-open environments, variety of visual styles, gameplay innovations, sniper mode, humor, ingeniousness of the puzzle designs, and the originality of some of the weaponry and enemies, though he was critical of the controls and

1208-452: A culture of "toxic geek masculinity" within the workplace. In addition, the conditions behind crunch time are far more discriminating towards women as this requires them to commit time exclusively to the company or to more personal activities like raising a family. These factors established conditions within some larger development studios where female developers have found themselves discriminated in workplace hiring and promotion, as well as

1359-508: A design choice, or shadows , but it was a tricky balance." When the game debuted at the 1996 E3 event in April, producer David Perry emphasized that he felt Shiny's lack of experience on the PC was to their advantage; "instead of simply rewriting a game that's already been written and having to meet a set of expectations, we can shoot really high." MDK was designed at a time when 3D gaming

1510-571: A first-party company. As a balance to not being able to release their game for other platforms, second-party developers are usually offered higher royalty rates than third-party developers. These studios may have exclusive publishing agreements (or other business relationships) with the platform holder, but maintain independence so that upon completion or termination of their contracts, they are able to continue developing games for other publishers if they choose to. For example, while HAL Laboratory initially began developing games on personal computers like

1661-410: A fixed period and generally work similar hours as full-time staff members, assisting across all areas of video game development, but as contractors, do not get any benefits such as paid time-off or health care from the employer; they also are typically not credited on games that they work on for this reason. The practice itself is legal and common in other engineering and technology areas, and generally it

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1812-403: A game on schedule. The complexity of workflow, reliance on third-party deliverables, and the intangibles of artistic and aesthetic demands in video game creation create difficulty in predicting milestones. The use of crunch time is also seen to be exploitative of the younger male-dominated workforce in video games, who have not had the time to establish a family and who were eager to advance within

1963-406: A game's profits. Current examples of first-party studios include PlayStation Studios for Sony, and Xbox Game Studios for Microsoft Gaming . Second-party developer is a colloquial term often used by gaming enthusiasts and media to describe game studios that take development contracts from platform holders and develop games exclusive to that platform, i.e. a non-owned developer making games for

2114-467: A level has been completed, the Minecrawler disintegrates, and is sucked back into the energy stream from which it emerged, taking Kurt with it. Kurt then has a set period of time in the energy stream, during which he pursues a health power-up , which, if collected, grants 150% health for the start of the next level. If he touches the walls of the stream, he loses health and decelerates. At the end of

2265-458: A lot more between the areas. And we're also compressing the data , which leads to a little bit of degradation on things like animations but it's hardly noticeable at all. It looks almost identical, in terms of the amount of animations and the amount of graphics in the game. But we have a lot more colors on screen. On the PC, they're limited to using one 256-color palette. We're not limited at all, we can use as many palettes as we like. Each texture in

2416-439: A mixed bag. Amazing graphics style, but little graphical consistency. Awesome combat action, but little combat challenge. Great puzzles, but they're really pretty simple, and the whole game can be solved without using too many brain cells." Reviews widely praised the sniper mode, graphics, and overall unique gameplay and style. The game was both a critical and a commercial success, and Interplay decided to begin work on

2567-418: A more collaboratively creative atmosphere than is usual, and facilitating the language to work specifically to accommodate the elements of the game which the designers and artists wished to achieve. Sniper mode was a major part of the game, with the ability to zoom up to 100x. The team decided not to employ any of the usual techniques to limit pop-up , such as clipping and fogging . A major technical issue

2718-467: A new studio in Montreal , Quebec , to assist with existing projects as necessary. During the mid-2000s, BioWare staff developed a number of video game projects which were ultimately canceled. A handheld spin-off for Mass Effect franchise titled Mass Effect: Corsair , inspired by the gameplay of Star Control and played from a first-person perspective, was briefly explored as a potential project for

2869-589: A number of changes in BioWare's corporate status. In November 2005, it was announced that BioWare and Pandemic Studios (itself founded by former Activision employees) would be joining forces (with each maintaining their own branding), with private equity fund Elevation Partners investing in the newly named VG Holding Corp. partnership. On 11 October 2007, it was announced that VG Holding Corp. had been bought by Electronic Arts for US$ 775   million (equivalent to $ 1.14 billion in 2023). BioWare therefore became

3020-437: A position in a medium to large video game company. An experienced game-development employee, depending on their expertise and experience, averaged roughly $ 73,000 in 2007. Indie game developers may only earn between $ 10,000 and $ 50,000 a year depending on how financially successful their titles are. In addition to being part of the software industry, game development is also within the entertainment industry; most sectors of

3171-531: A quest to infiltrate each Minecrawler and eliminate its pilot. After accomplishing this dangerous task, he must return to Dr. Hawkins' in-orbit space station, the Jim Dandy. Conceived and co- designed by Nick Bruty , MDK was Shiny's first PC game, and was notable for using software rendering , requiring a Pentium or equivalent microprocessor , rather than necessitating any GPU enhancements, despite its large 3D levels and complex polygonal enemies. As

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3322-552: A restructuring of their role-playing and massively multiplayer online games development into a new group that included both Mythic Entertainment and BioWare. Ray Muzyka, co-founder and general manager of BioWare, was appointed the group general manager of this newly formed "BioWare Group". BioWare's other co-founder, Greg Zeschuk, became the Group Creative Officer for the new MMORPG studio group. BioWare's studios remained unchanged and continued to report to Muzyka. Near

3473-649: A roundtable discussion with the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), the professional association for developers. Statements made by the IGDA's current executive director Jen MacLean relating to IGDA's activities had been seen by as anti-union, and Game Workers Unite desired to start a conversation to lay out the need for developers to unionize. In the wake of the sudden near-closure of Telltale Games in September 2018,

3624-458: A score of 76%, based on six reviews. Next Generation reviewed the PC version of the game, stating that " MDK is a game that no self-respective gamer will want to miss." GamePro gave it a perfect 5.0 out of 5 in all four categories (graphics, sound, control, and funfactor), saying it "easily lives up to all its rampant hype, delivering one of the year's most creative, engrossing, and just plain fun games." The reviewer particularly applauded

3775-459: A sequel immediately. According to the publisher, global sales of MDK surpassed 400,000 copies by June 1998. Its sales had reached 500,000 copies by early 2000. Interplay approached Bruty for ideas, but he did not want to go straight into another MDK game; "I hadn't liked rushing from Earthworm Jim to its sequel without a creative break, and I felt the game suffered because of that." In any case, his new development studio, Planet Moon Studios ,

3926-407: A single publisher; one canceled game may devastate a small developer. Because of this, many small development companies are short-lived. A common exit strategy for a successful video game developer is to sell the company to a publisher, becoming an in-house developer. In-house development teams tend to have more freedom in game design and content than third-party developers. One reason is that since

4077-448: A smart bomb feature, where he can call Max to fly a bomber over the battle area and drop bombs on the enemies. To call Max, Kurt must have collected an airstrike pickup within the game. He must enter sniper mode to select the area he wants Max to target. Additionally, the airstrike can only be used in exterior locations on the Minecrawler. Other weaponry in the game includes grenades , "The World's Most Interesting Bomb" (when Kurt throws

4228-403: A strong STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) background for women at the secondary education level, but there are issues with tertiary education such as at colleges and universities, where game development programs tend to reflect the male-dominated demographics of the industry, a factor that may lead women with strong STEM backgrounds to choose other career goals. There

4379-482: A third game was planned, but it was never made. For the most part, MDK is a run-and-gun third-person shooter . It also features several minigames , and allows the player to enter first-person mode at any time they wish to use their sniper weapon . The basic design of the game involves distinct levels in which the player character , Kurt Hectic, must infiltrate a "Minecrawler", fight his way through an array of enemies, tackle some rudimentary puzzles , and reach

4530-697: A unique case where nearly all parts of its labor force, including white-collar jobs such as video game development, may engage with labor unions under the Employment Protection Act often through collective bargaining agreements. Developer DICE had reached its union agreements in 2004. Paradox Interactive became one of the first major publishers to support unionization efforts in June 2020 with its own agreements to cover its Swedish employees within two labor unions Unionen and SACO . In Australia, video game developers could join other unions, but

4681-486: A unit of EA, but still retained its own branding. In 2007, BioWare released the science fiction role-playing game Mass Effect . The following year, BioWare released Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood on the Nintendo DS , its first title for a handheld game console . Later, EA announced that BioWare would merge with Mythic Entertainment , another division of EA who would rename itself as BioWare Mythic after

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4832-473: A video game company. To make their first game, they pooled their resources, $ 100,000 CAD each, which resulted in capital of $ 300,000. The company was incorporated on 1 February 1995, though formally launched on 22 May 1995. Their first game, Shattered Steel , began its life as a proof-of-concept demo, similar to the MechWarrior games . This demo was submitted to ten publishers, seven of whom returned to

4983-548: A year after the release. Obsidian Entertainment (successor to Black Isle Studios) used an updated version of BioWare's Aurora, titled "Electron Engine", to produce Neverwinter Nights 2 (2006) and its three expansion packs (2007–2009). Like the original, the Electron toolset was released with the game. The Polish studio CD Projekt Red used the Aurora Engine to develop The Witcher , the 2007 video game adaptation of

5134-558: Is a monochrome mix of a French music video ("Non Non Rien N'a Changé" by Billy Ze Kick ) and clips from the MDK promotional video. MDK ' s writer, co- designer and co- artist Nick Bruty has said the initial impetus for the game was his desire to move away from the type of game on which he had previously been working; family-friendly games such as Aladdin (1993), The Jungle Book (1993), Earthworm Jim (1994) and Earthworm Jim 2 (1995), all of which Bruty had worked on for

5285-482: Is also a significant gap in racial minorities within the video game industry; a 2019 IGDA survey found only 2% of developers considered themselves to be of African descent and 7% Hispanic, while 81% were Caucasian; in contrast, 2018 estimates from the United States Census estimate the U.S. population to be 13% of African descent and 18% Hispanic. In a 2014 and 2015 survey of job positions and salaries,

5436-614: Is based on BioWare's previous contribution to the Star Wars franchise, and was announced on 21 October 2008, although BioWare had first mentioned an unspecified new collaboration with LucasArts in October the previous year. The other games were Dragon Age II , the sequel to Dragon Age: Origins , and Mass Effect 3 . Following the release of Mass Effect 3 in March 2012, numerous players complained about its endings failing to fulfill

5587-449: Is expected that this is meant to lead into a full-time position, or otherwise the end of the contract. But more recently, its use in the video game industry has been compared to Microsoft 's past use of " permatemp ", contract workers that were continually renewed and treated for all purposes as employees but received no benefits. While Microsoft has waned from the practice, the video game industry has adapted it more frequently. Around 10% of

5738-533: Is generally illegal, companies often target their oldest workers first during layoffs or other periods of reduction. Older developers with experience may find themselves too qualified for the types of positions that other game development companies seek given the salaries and compensations offered. Some of the larger video game developers and publishers have also engaged contract workers through agencies to help add manpower in game development in part to alleviate crunch time from employees. Contractors are brought on for

5889-400: Is manned primarily by various types of soldiers named "Grunts." Some areas contain "Grunt generators" which create an infinite number of enemies until destroyed. Apart from Grunts, and each Minecrawler's unique pilot, Kurt also encounters various types of robots , tanks , automated and manned turrets , animals , small attack ships, troop transport ships , and sentry drones. The story of

6040-494: Is still their primary activity they are generally described as "publishers" rather than "developers". Developers may be private as well. In the video game industry , a first-party developer is part of a company that manufactures a video game console and develops mainly for it. First-party developers may use the name of the company itself (such as Nintendo ), have a specific division name (such as Sony's Polyphony Digital ) or have been an independent studio before being acquired by

6191-474: Is usually conducted in a casual business environment, with t-shirts and sandals as common work attire. Many workers find this type of environment rewarding and pleasant professionally and personally. However, the industry also requires long working hours from its employees (sometimes to an extent seen as unsustainable). Employee burnout is not uncommon. An entry-level programmer can make, on average, over $ 66,000 annually only if they are successful in obtaining

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6342-613: The Icewind Dale series (2000–2002). When Beamdog sought out a license from BioWare and started engineering enhanced versions of these games in 2012, they created an updated version of the Infinity Engine, referred to as the "Infinity Enhanced Engine" (alternatively Infinity Plus Engine or Infinity Bless Engine). The Aurora Engine was the successor to the Infinity Engine, featuring full 3D environments, real-time lighting and shadows, and surround sound . BioWare used

6493-659: The AFL–CIO writing an open letter to video game developers encouraging them to unionize. In January 2020, Game Workers Unite and the Communications Workers of America established a new campaign to push for unionization of video game developers, the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE), in January 2020. Initial efforts for CODE were aimed to determine what approach to unionization would be best suited for

6644-456: The International Game Developers Association (IGDA), are conducting increasing discussions about the problem; they are concerned that working conditions in the industry cause a significant deterioration in employees' quality of life. Some video game developers and publishers have been accused of the excessive invocation of "crunch time". "Crunch time" is the point at which the team is thought to be failing to achieve milestones needed to launch

6795-597: The Jim Dandy space station , which is in orbit around Earth, to the Minecrawler on the planet's surface. As he descends, the Minecrawler activates its radar , which, if touched, triggers the launch of anti-air missiles , which must be dodged. Some levels feature Kurt taking over an enemy bombing ship and performing bombing runs, some feature a glider which Kurt must ride to a specific location. One level features several snowboarding sequences, where Kurt must navigate obstacles while destroying enemies. Additionally, once

6946-516: The MSX , they became one of the earliest second-party developers for Nintendo, developing exclusively for Nintendo's consoles starting with the Famicom, though they would self-publish their mobile games. A third-party developer may also publish games, or work for a video game publisher to develop a title. Both publisher and developer have considerable input in the game's design and content. However,

7097-521: The Mass Effect franchise , Mass Effect: Legendary Edition was announced as well as an all-new entry to the franchise that had just started development. On 3 December 2020, both Hudson and Mark Darrah, the executive producer on the Dragon Age series, announced their departures from the studio. Electronic Arts stated that work on the Mass Effect and Dragon Age games would still continue at

7248-528: The Me Too movement and have tried to address the symptoms of these problems industry-wide, the video game industry has yet to have its Me Too-moment, even as late as 2021. There also tends to be pay-related discrimination against women in the industry. According to Gamasutra 's Game Developer Salary Survey 2014, women in the United States made 86 cents for every dollar men made. Game designing women had

7399-543: The Nintendo DS in 2008. A sequel to Jade Empire was under development at one point. The project transitioned into a spiritual successor codenamed Revolver , which was canceled by 2008. Trent Oster led a team which worked on a spy-themed role-playing game codenamed Agent prior to his second departure from BioWare in 2009. Unused concept art for Agent and Revolver are featured in the art book BioWare: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development , published in January 2021. On 24 June 2009, Electronic Arts announced

7550-826: The PlayStation by Neversoft . The game was published on all systems by Playmates Interactive Entertainment (PIE) in North America, while Shiny handled the European release. The game tells the story of Kurt Hectic, a janitor who reluctantly attempts to save Earth from an alien invasion of gigantic strip mining city-sized vehicles named "Minecrawlers". The Minecrawlers are ruthlessly harvesting Earth's natural resources and crushing any people and cities that get in their way. Assisted by his somewhat eccentric boss, Dr. Fluke Hawkins, an inventive scientist, and an unusual robotic companion named Bones, Kurt embarks on

7701-669: The Polish fantasy novel series , although the rendering module was rewritten from scratch. BioWare used an updated version of the Aurora, titled the Odyssey Engine, to produce Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic in 2003 and their first original intellectual property role-playing game Jade Empire in 2005. The Odyssey Engine was the first BioWare engine to allow developing for video game consoles , with both Knights of

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7852-596: The README for the PC version of the game, it is stated "It stands for whatever we say it stands for on any given day; i.e., today it stands for Mother's Day Kisses..." In the European PC release, the background images during installation present many possible meanings for the letters; one of which is "Murder, Death, Kill". In the Japanese release, on the back cover it says in bold yellow letters: "My Dear Knight". During

8003-504: The Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union doing work for video games struck several major publishers, demanding better royalty payments and provisions related to the safety of their vocal performances, when their union's standard contract was up for renewal. The voice actor strike lasted for over 300 days into 2017 before a new deal was made between SAG-AFTRA and

8154-465: The Sega Genesis . According to Bruty, MDK was a reaction, or outburst, from having worked back-to-back on cartoon games such as Aladdin , Jungle Book and Earthworm Jim . Don't get me wrong, I loved working on those games and learning new styles; but my heart is in fantasy and science fiction . I knew straight away that this was what I wanted to do next. Bruty's first image for the game

8305-472: The fan community to implement original adventures using the technology of BioWare's games. BioWare created the Infinity Engine to use it as a core component for development of the Baldur's Gate series (1998–2001), which were 2D role-playing video games based on Dungeons & Dragons . The engine was also used by Black Isle Studios to create the critically acclaimed Planescape: Torment (1999) and

8456-530: The video game industry . He told the Los Angeles Times : "Someone who was part of the co-creation of that world and those characters isn't getting a credit or a nickel for the work they put into it. Maybe we need unions in the video game industry to be able to protect creators." MDK MDK is a 1997 third-person shooter video game developed by Shiny Entertainment for Windows and subsequently ported to Mac OS by Shokwave, and to

8607-574: The "floating third-person view", Kurt's arsenal of abilities, the effective realization of the setting, and the varied gameplay experiences. Game Revolution 's Johnny Lee called the game "Non-stop 3D shooting, killing, exploding, dodging, parachuting, running, ambushing, assassinating, jumping, mind blowing action!" He commented that it stands out from other games with its requisite parachuting skills, sniping mode, bombing minigame, and acerbic sense of humor. He concluded " MDK combines sweet graphics and 'revolutionary' gameplay and design concepts to put it in

8758-412: The Aurora Engine to produce their 2002 Neverwinter Nights , as well as two expansion packs. The game included the Aurora toolset, a collection of tools allowing users to create their own digital adventure modules to be played either in single-player or in online multiplayer. The toolset enjoyed great popularity among the modding community, with over a thousand fan-made modules produced in it within half

8909-497: The BioWare team, which is already developing for the Star Wars franchise." In November 2013, teaser images from the next instalment of the Mass Effect series were released. At E3 2014 , BioWare Edmonton announced working on a new (unnamed) original intellectual property in addition to continuing their established series. Another new IP, titled Shadow Realms is an episodic 4 vs. 1 story-driven online action role-playing game, and

9060-469: The Doctor as an archetypal kooky inventor and Kurt as the straight man - the ordinary person navigating a bizarre world. The process of designing enemies involved sketching each type on paper before constructing a 3D wire-frame model , which was then integrated into the gaming environment. Subsequently, these models were transformed into texture-mapped polygons and animated using data gathered from

9211-446: The IGDA found that people of color were both underrepresented in senior management roles as well as underpaid in comparison to white developers. Further, because video game developers typically draw from personal experiences in building game characters, this diversity gap has led to few characters of racial minority to be featured as main characters within video games. Minority developers have also been harassed from external groups due to

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9362-735: The Minecrawlers from above, and destroying them from the inside-out, shooting his way through to the pilot, whom he then kills, before being extracted back to the Jim Dandy . Kurt fights his way through a number of Minecrawlers, destroying them one by one, until he reaches the Crawler piloted by Gunter Glut himself. Kurt destroys the final Minecrawler, but Glut captures Max, and escapes into an energy stream leading to his base ship. Kurt gives chase and frees Max, who tricks Glut into eating him. Max then kills Glut by exploding him from within. The two then escape and destroy Glut's ship. The ending sequence

9513-536: The Odyssey Engine and, among other things, supported PhysX hardware acceleration. It was used to produce Dragon Age: Origins (2009) and its expansion pack Awakening (2010). Like Neverwinter Nights , Origins was released with a toolset to allow the players to run their own adventure modules on the Eclipse Engine. An upgraded version of the Eclipse Engine, internally known as the Lycium Engine,

9664-515: The Old Republic . They proceeded to make several other successful games based on original intellectual property: Jade Empire , the Mass Effect series, and the Dragon Age series. In 2011, BioWare launched their first massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), Star Wars: The Old Republic . BioWare was founded by Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk , and Augustine Yip. Of

9815-587: The Old Republic and Jade Empire originally released for the Xbox before being ported to the PC platform. Obsidian Entertainment used the Odyssey Engine to develop Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (2004), a sequel to the original Knights of the Old Republic . BioWare maintained limited oversight on Obsidian's development of The Sith Lords , as well as Neverwinter Nights 2 . The Eclipse Engine succeeded

9966-549: The Old Republic , Jade Empire , and Dragon Age: Origins , as well as the game director of The Old Republic MMO, left the studio after 22 years in July 2018. On 24 September 2019, it was announced that BioWare had moved from their old location on Calgary Trail into 3 stories of the Epcor Tower in downtown Edmonton. On 7 November 2020 or "N7 Day", a date first declared in 2012 by BioWare as an annual "worldwide celebration" of

10117-484: The acquisition of Activision Blizzard , stated it supported these unionization efforts. After this acquisition, the employees of Bethesda Game Studios , part of Zenimax under Microsoft, unionized under the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in July 2024. Over 500 employees within Blizzard Entertainment 's World of Warcraft division also unionized with CWA that same month. Sweden presents

10268-572: The advent of digital distribution of inexpensive games on game consoles, it is now possible for indie game developers to forge agreements with console manufacturers for broad distribution of their games. Other indie game developers create game software for a number of video-game publishers on several gaming platforms. In recent years this model has been in decline; larger publishers, such as Electronic Arts and Activision, increasingly turn to internal studios (usually former independent developers acquired for their development needs). Video game development

10419-469: The atmospheric entry sections. Kurt's weapon is a chain gun , which is attached to his arm , and carries unlimited ammo. The other major weapon in the game is a sniper gun. This is created when Kurt detaches his chain gun from his arm and mounts it onto his helmet . The sniper weapon can zoom up to 100x, and has the capability of supporting five different types of ammunition, including homing missiles and mortar shells . Kurt does not actually see out of

10570-497: The bomb, all enemies within the vicinity will approach it, at which point Kurt can detonate it), "The Very Large Hamster Hammer" (a giant hammer that causes the ground to vibrate violently, damaging any nearby enemies), and "The World's Smallest Nuclear Explosion " (used for opening locked doors). In addition to the run-and-gun/sniper modes, there are several additional gameplay modes in MDK . All levels start out with an " atmospheric entry " in which Kurt jumps from his base ship,

10721-431: The closest equity, making 96 cents for every dollar men made in the same job, while audio professional women had the largest gap, making 68% of what men in the same position made. Increasing the representation of women in the video game industry required breaking a feedback loop of the apparent lack of female representation in the production of video games and in the content of video games. Efforts have been made to provide

10872-458: The command of Gunter Glut, easily demolish all of Earth's military forces, and so Hawkins decides to take action to save the planet. Hawkins reasons the only way to fight the aliens is with his newly invented "Coil Suit", but due to his advancing years and Max's extra pair of legs, Kurt is the only one who can wear it, and, thus, becomes the very reluctant hero. As such, Kurt is dispatched on "Mission: Deliver Kindness". This involves Kurt entering

11023-401: The company lost the licence of the game to Atari and part of their Dungeons & Dragons licence to BioWare. After selling their D&D licence to Atari, BioWare developed Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire . It had publishing relationships with Interplay Entertainment, Infogrames , under its new name Atari, LucasArts , and Microsoft . The next few years saw

11174-400: The company with an offer. A publishing deal for Shattered Steel was eventually signed with Interplay Entertainment . Brent Oster and Trent Oster formed Pyrotek Studios, which continued developing Shattered Steel but broke up a year later, with Trent joining BioWare as an early employee to finish the game. BioWare's first game was released the following year. Shattered Steel ' s release

11325-473: The confirmation ( Dragon Age: Inquisition , Mass Effect: Andromeda , Anthem , and Dragon Age: The Veilguard ) were developed using Frostbite 3 as part of the general move towards a unified technology foundation across all of Electronic Arts' development studios. The full list of awards can be found on their web site. In addition to numerous game awards, in October 2008, the company was named one of Alberta's Top Employers by Mediacorp Canada Inc., which

11476-416: The console manufacturer (such as Rare or Naughty Dog ). Whether by purchasing an independent studio or by founding a new team, the acquisition of a first-party developer involves a huge financial investment on the part of the console manufacturer, which is wasted if the developer fails to produce a hit game on time. However, using first-party developers saves the cost of having to make royalty payments on

11627-508: The console. This established the use of licensing fees as a model for third-party development that persists into the present. The licensing fee approach was further enforced by Nintendo when it decided to allow other third-party developers to make games for the Famicom console, setting a 30% licensing fee that covered game cartridge manufacturing costs and development fees. The 30% licensing fee for third-party developers has also persisted to

11778-584: The control center, where he must then eliminate the pilot in a boss fight . Every level is completely different; enemies, level design , aesthetic, and control center layout, with a different strategy required to eliminate each pilot. During the run-and-gun gameplay , the player must frequently use Kurt's "ribbon chute", a parachute contained within his outfit that can be used indefinitely. The chute allows Kurt to make long jumps, survive long falls, and utilize updrafts . It deploys immediately and retracts automatically when not being used. Kurt also has access to

11929-741: The deal. The growth of the MMORPG group as part of Electronic Arts in 2008 resulted in three additional studios being added to the BioWare group outside BioWare's original home base in Edmonton. The first, located in Austin, Texas , and headed by industry veterans Gordon Walton and Richard Vogel, was created to work on the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG project. Both the studio and the project were announced on 13 March 2006. On 2 March 2009, BioWare announced it had opened

12080-444: The developer if the game is not meeting expectations. When each milestone is completed (and accepted), the publisher pays the developer an advance on royalties . Successful developers may maintain several teams working on different games for different publishers. Generally, however, third-party developers tend to be small, close-knit teams. Third-party game development is a volatile sector, since small developers may depend on income from

12231-449: The developer's earlier promises regarding the conclusion of the trilogy. In response to the controversy surrounding the game's ending sequence , BioWare announced on 5 April that they would reschedule their post-release content production and release an "Extended Cut" DLC that would expand the original endings and address the most common points of critique. The Extended Cut was released as a free download on 26 June 2012. On 18 September 2012,

12382-417: The developers are the publisher's employees, their interests align with those of the publisher; the publisher may spend less effort ensuring that the developer's decisions do not enrich the developer at the publisher's expense. Activision in 1979 became the first third-party video game developer. When four Atari, Inc. programmers left the company following its sale to Warner Communications , partially over

12533-439: The developers were attempting very ambitious things, they wrote their own programming language . Additionally, when in sniper mode, the player has the ability to zoom up to 100x, but the developers chose not to employ any of the standard solutions to pop-up , such as clipping or fogging . They also worked to ensure the game ran at a minimum of 30 fps at all times on all machines. The game's original system requirements were

12684-530: The development of Mass Effect: Andromeda , left in December 2015 and February 2016 respectively. Alexis Kennedy , co-founder of Failbetter Games and the creative director of Dragon Age : The Last Court , joined BioWare as its "first ever guest writer" in September 2016. On 13 September 2016, EA announced the formation of EA Worldwide Studios, which would consist of BioWare Studios, EA Mobile , and Maxis , and led by DICE co-founder Patrick Soderlund . At

12835-428: The early stages of development, some of the team saw the 1993 Mike Leigh film, Naked , in which David Thewlis ' character says to a junkie , "What is it like in your head? Hectic?" Bruty and Williams loved the line, and decided Hectic should be the character's surname. When trying to think of his first name, they wanted to name him after someone who lived a notoriously hectic life, and settled on Kurt Cobain . At

12986-570: The end of 2009, BioWare released the critically acclaimed fantasy role-playing game Dragon Age: Origins . In January 2010, BioWare released the sequel to Mass Effect , Mass Effect 2 , which would go on to receive critical acclaim and many awards. The company announced that it would be opening up a new customer service office in Galway , Ireland, in 2011. BioWare completed three major games between 2011 and 2012. The massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Star Wars: The Old Republic

13137-467: The entertainment industry (such as films and television ) require long working hours and dedication from their employees, such as willingness to relocate and/or required to develop games that do not appeal to their personal taste. The creative rewards of work in the entertainment business attracts labor to the industry, creating a competitive labor market that demands a high level of commitment and performance from employees. Industry communities, such as

13288-520: The first decisions the team made was not to develop the game for the system with which they had the most experience, the Sega Genesis, but instead to develop it for the PC , making it Shiny 's first PC game. Developing for the PC brought a number of advantages, not the least of which was it allowed the team to make the game using 3D computer graphics . As Bruty explains, "I wanted to work on PC because

13439-524: The first such weapons conceived was the "World's Smallest Nuclear Bomb ," as the team wanted to come up with the most over-the-top way imaginable to open a door. Each level in the game was crafted by a different designer, resulting in a diverse and distinct visual experience throughout. To achieve lifelike movements for Kurt and the enemies, the developers utilized motion capture , a groundbreaking technology in video game development at that time. Unlike previous motion capture implementations, they broke down

13590-460: The first video game-specific union, Game Workers Unite Australia, was formed in December 2021 under Professionals Australia to become active in 2022. In Canada, in a historic move, video game workers in Edmonton unanimously voted to unionize for the first time in June 2022. In January 2023, after not being credited in The Last of Us HBO adaptation, Bruce Straley called for unionization of

13741-478: The founding team, Muzyka, Zeschuk and Yip had recently graduated from medical school at the University of Alberta , and had a background in programming for use in school. Together with Yip, they had created a medical simulation programme. The three also played video games for recreation, eventually deciding to develop their own. Their success in the medical field provided them with the funding they needed to launch

13892-524: The fourth instalment in the Dragon Age series, Dragon Age: The Veilguard , was released. The game received "generally favorable" reviews from critics for its Windows and PlayStation 5 versions and "universal acclaim" for its Xbox Series X/S version, according to the review aggregator website Metacritic . Dragon Age: The Veilguard was review bombed by users for being " ' woke ,' ' DEI ,' ' propaganda ,' and ' agenda-driven ' " on Metacritic, causing

14043-463: The game begins in 1996 when inventor / scientist Dr. Fluke Hawkins believes he has made a revolutionary discovery; an outer space phenomenon he calls "Flange Orbits". However, when he approaches the scientific community with his discovery, he is ridiculed. Determined to prove his colleagues wrong, Hawkins builds a space station , the Jim Dandy , and bribes aboard his laboratory janitor , Kurt Hectic, by means of Hungarian goulash . He then launches

14194-622: The game has its own palette, which means effectively we've got 32,000 colors on screen at once, which gives a lot more vibrancy to the look of the game. We're also using proper transparency. We're going to be doing some lighting effects that they don't have the power to do on the PC. Because the PC version was still months away from completion when work on the PlayStation port began, the Neversoft team had to continually adjust their work in response to updates they received from Shiny. While

14345-529: The game multiple times. When the frame rate dropped below 30, they either removed something from that part of the game, rewrote the graphics code, or altered the artwork until they could get the frame rate back up to where they wanted without having to reduce resolution or increase pixel size. According to Bruty, "We had no idea how fast we could get the engine when we started. The game would run too slow if we textured everything, so some parts were just flat- shaded for speed. We did our best to make that look like

14496-440: The game to be gory, even going so far as to study tapes of people dying in gruesome manners to see the effects of violent deaths on the human body, this lack of censorship was ideal. Once the decision was made to develop for the PC, the team quickly decided they wanted to make a game that would push the boundaries of PC gaming beyond anything seen up to that point. The naming of Kurt Hectic was inspired by two disparate sources. In

14647-573: The game was 3D, which wasn't an option on consoles at that point." Tim Williams explains another advantage of working on PC was "it meant I wouldn't have to tone the game down to deal with the Sega and Nintendo 's ratings boards. I loved [the concept]. I could see the game immediately would have a unique look and plenty of design opportunities. We were all big fans of the Alien movies and H. R. Giger , so that probably had some influence." As Shiny intended

14798-464: The game was too short, and the story was weak. The game was a commercial success, and Interplay approached Bruty to work on a sequel immediately. However, he was already developing Giants: Citizen Kabuto , so BioWare was hired to develop the game. MDK2 was published for Windows and the Dreamcast in 2000, and for the PlayStation 2 (as MDK 2: Armageddon ) in 2001. In 2007, Interplay announced

14949-527: The game's theme, making Kurt's Coil Suit a self-contained and versatile offensive/defensive ensemble. When designing the suit, Bruty drew inspiration from elegant and ornate Spanish armor, seeking to bring more flair to the character's appearance. During atmospheric entry sequences, a 3D model of Kurt was employed, while pre-rendered sprites were predominantly used during gameplay for optimal performance. Zeschuk found inspiration for Max's character in figures like Chow Yun-fat , Snoopy and Gromit . He described

15100-404: The gaming industry, while a 2017 IGDA survey found that the female demographic in game development had risen to about 20%. Taking into account that a 2017 ESA survey found 41% of video game players were female, this represented a significant gender gap in game development. The male-dominated industry, most who have grown up playing video games and are part of the video game culture , can create

15251-584: The general manager of BioWare Austin since 2012; after his promotion, Jeff Hickman took over as the general manager in Austin. Aaryn Flynn remained in charge of BioWare Canada (Edmonton and Montreal) and Jon Van Caneghem , the head of Victory Games and Waystone Studio (also parts of the BioWare label). After acquiring and dismantling LucasArts , The Walt Disney Company announced in May 2013 that Electronic Arts will produce future Star Wars games, "in addition to

15402-425: The graphics, though outstanding by PlayStation standards, were downgraded from the PC version, and judged that the new content was not enough to merit a replay from those who had already played the PC version. They nonetheless gave the PlayStation version a perfect 5.0 out of 5 in all four categories (fun factor, graphics, sound, and control), remarking, " MDK is riveting, combining tensely paced run-n-gun gameplay with

15553-416: The helmet, rather, he sees out of a HUD , which he uses to aim. There are also three "Bullet Cams" that track each projectile and linger briefly after impact, showing any damage done. However, when Kurt is in sniper mode, he is unable to move, and can thus be easily targeted by enemies. The enemies in MDK are a collective of aliens called "Streamriders" under the command of Gunter Glut. Each Minecrawler

15704-457: The industry by working long hours. Because crunch time tends to come from a combination of corporate practices as well as peer influence, the term "crunch culture" is often used to discuss video game development settings where crunch time may be seen as the norm rather than the exception. The use of crunch time as a workplace standard gained attention first in 2004, when Erin Hoffman exposed

15855-515: The installation of MDK2 , various meanings are shown, again including "Murder, Death, Kill". The original meaning of "MDK" from the company's initial promo video was in fact "Murder Death Kill". In a 2009 interview with NowGamer , David Perry revealed that because the North American publisher PIE was supposed to make toys based on the game, they did not like the title, so the words were removed and simply replaced with "MDK". In 2011 on

16006-431: The lack of respect that the new management gave to programmers, they used their knowledge of how Atari VCS game cartridges were programmed to create their own games for the system, founding Activision in 1979 to sell these. Atari took legal action to try to block the sale of these games, but the companies ultimately settled, with Activision agreeing to pay a portion of their sales as a license fee to Atari for developing for

16157-442: The motion capture system. The attention to detail extended to larger enemies, whose polygon structures allowed players to target specific body parts, such as legs, arms, and even the eyes of certain adversaries. MDK attempted things never before seen in a PC game , so the team decided to write their own programming language . Rather than having the programmers write the language, the designers and artists also worked on it, allowing

16308-466: The motion scripts for individual limbs, enabling them to mix and match animations, leading to a broader range of movements. Creating Kurt's character involved a critical consideration: ensuring a seamless transition between third-person and sniper modes. To tackle this challenge, the developers ingeniously designed Kurt's sniper rifle to be the same as his machine gun, allowing him to attach the gun to his helmet effortlessly. This decision aligned well with

16459-559: The movement again called out for the industry to unionize. The movement argued that Telltale had not given any warning to its 250 employees let go, having hired additional staff as recently as a week prior, and left them without pensions or health-care options; it was further argued that the studio considered this a closure rather than layoffs, as to get around failure to notify required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 preceding layoffs. The situation

16610-448: The nature of the video game culture. The industry also is recognized to have an ageism issue, discriminating against the hiring and retention of older developers. A 2016 IGDA survey found only 3% of developers were over 50 years old, while at least two-thirds were between 20 and 34; these numbers show a far lower average age compared to the U.S. national average of about 41.9 that same year. While discrimination by age in hiring practices

16761-497: The new game. In July 2017, Aaryn Flynn, general manager of BioWare, announced that he would depart from the company. Hudson returned to BioWare as its new general manager. Lead story developer for Jade Empire and Dragon Age creative director Mike Laidlaw announced his departure from BioWare in October 2017 after 14 years with the company. James Ohlen , the lead designer of the Baldur's Gate series, Neverwinter Nights , Knights of

16912-540: The news, there have typically been followup discussions towards the potential to form a union. A survey performed by the International Game Developers Association in 2014 found that more than half of the 2,200 developers surveyed favored unionization. A similar survey of over 4,000 game developers run by the Game Developers Conference in early 2019 found that 47% of respondents felt the video game industry should unionize. In 2016, voice actors in

17063-650: The next Mass Effect [game]" in an interview with Rolling Stone . Amazon MGM Studios officially confirmed on 7 November 2024 that a Mass Effect TV series is in development, following negotiations that had started in late 2021. BioWare executive producer Michael Gamble will also act as an executive producer on the TV adaptation. Between 1998 and 2011, BioWare developed a number of in-house video game engines to serve as technical basis for their games. Some of these engines were then licensed to other companies to develop their own games. Others came with modding toolkits , allowing

17214-447: The next day after the official announcement of the third Dragon Age title , both Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk , two of the remaining co-founders of BioWare, simultaneously announced they would be retiring from the gaming industry. After almost a year without a formal head, EA appointed Matthew Bromberg the group general manager of the BioWare label on 9 September 2013. Former CEO and president of Major League Gaming , Bromberg worked as

17365-505: The official GOG.com forum for the game, Nick Bruty (creator of MDK) posted that the letters do indeed stand for "Murder Death Kill". MDK became available digitally for newer Windows releases on GOG.com in September 2008 among the service's first games. A macOS version was added on October 26, 2012. It received generally positive reviews on both PC and PlayStation. The Windows version holds an aggregate score of 89% on GameRankings , based on five reviews. The PlayStation version holds

17516-496: The platform to respond with a statement and by removing user reviews which had violated their guidelines. Veilguard is the first BioWare game that allows the player character to identify as transgender . On 7 November 2024, or "N7 Day", BioWare released a patch which added several Mass Effect -inspired costumes into the game. In late October 2024, following the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard , creative director John Epler stated that BioWare's attention had "shifted entirely to

17667-495: The player to see all the cool actions the main character would be performing, so third-person was the natural choice and challenge we went for." From the earliest stages of level design , it was decided each level would begin with a free-fall minigame , before the level proper begins. Initially, the plan was for Kurt to travel through each level on a futuristic motorcycle , which would morph around him to protect him and would be integrated into his Coil Suit. However, this idea

17818-420: The precise meaning of the title's three-letter acronym is never revealed during the game, the gaming press and fans adopted "Murder, Death, Kill", which was coined in the 1993 film Demolition Man . Another possibility is documented in the game manual, where Kurt's mission is named "Mission: Deliver Kindness". It could also stand for the first initials of the game's characters; Max, Dr. Hawkins, and Kurt. In

17969-694: The present, being a de facto rate used for most digital storefronts for third-party developers to offer their games on the platform. In recent years, larger publishers have acquired several third-party developers. While these development teams are now technically "in-house", they often continue to operate in an autonomous manner (with their own culture and work practices). For example, Activision acquired Raven (1997); Neversoft (1999), which merged with Infinity Ward in 2014; Z-Axis (2001); Treyarch (2001); Luxoflux (2002); Shaba (2002); Infinity Ward (2003) and Vicarious Visions (2005). All these developers continue operating much as they did before acquisition,

18120-589: The previous Mass Effect games. Given the circumstances Electronic Arts had reportedly frozen the entire Mass Effect series, downgrading the BioWare Montréal branch from a leading development team to a support team, and later merging it into Motive Studios . During EA's EA Play pre-E3 press conference on 10 June 2017, BioWare revealed Anthem , a new action role-playing game , with BioWare's story writer, Drew Karpyshyn , who previously worked on Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 , contributing to

18271-414: The primary differences being exclusivity and financial details. Publishers tend to be more forgiving of their own development teams going over budget (or missing deadlines) than third-party developers. A developer may not be the primary entity creating a piece of software, usually providing an external software tool which helps organize (or use) information for the primary software product. Such tools may be

18422-429: The publisher's wishes generally override those of the developer. Work for hire studios solely execute the publishers vision. The business arrangement between the developer and publisher is governed by a contract, which specifies a list of milestones intended to be delivered over a period of time. By updating its milestones, the publisher verifies that work is progressing quickly enough to meet its deadline and can direct

18573-415: The publishers. While this had some effects on a few games within the industry, it brought to the forefront the question of whether video game developers should unionize. A grassroots movement, Game Workers Unite , was established around 2017 to discuss and debate issues related to unionization of game developers. The group came to the forefront during the March 2018 Game Developers Conference by holding

18724-400: The release of Baldur's Gate . Baldur's Gate II sold two million copies, matching the sales of the first game in the series. However, the success of both Baldur's Gate II and MDK2 was not enough to stabilize Interplay financially. Subsequently, BioWare began to work with Infogrames , which was later renamed to Atari . Neverwinter Nights was originally to be published by Interplay, but

18875-428: The same time, Samantha Ryan, head of EA Mobile and Maxis, was appointed the new head of BioWare Studios. Released in March 2017, Andromeda was at the center of controversy of equal proportions, if not higher than that around the third chapter; starting with heavy criticisms that were addressed before the video game was released to the lukewarm response received by the specialized press and the fandom with sales lower than

19026-403: The set period, Max will enter the stream on a tether and pull Kurt back to the Jim Dandy . Kurt's main defense against his enemies is his "Coil Suit", a skin-tight armor made of a Kevlar -like material, and created on a "nuclear-blast proof sewing machine ". This suit serves as a bulletproof vest during the combat sections of the game, and also protects Kurt from friction and heat during

19177-401: The short length of the game. Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) and IGN both strongly approved of the quality of the PlayStation port, particularly citing the retention of all the content of the PC version and the addition of the new warp rooms. IGN ' s Jay Boor said it "has to be one of the most impressive PC to PlayStation ports I have ever seen." However, GamePro noted that

19328-535: The station into orbit , projecting that the mission will last five days. However, after a week, Hawkins realizes Flange Orbits do not actually exist, but rather than return to Earth in shame, he decides to remain on the Dandy to try to discover something, anticipating another week in space. Kurt is extremely unhappy with this development, but once Hawkins shows him how to program the VCR , he calms down. A year later, having made no discoveries, Hawkins begins work building

19479-463: The stealthy, strategic stalking that the sniper helmet enables." EGM and GameSpot were not as convinced, citing polygon breakup, control issues, excessively low difficulty, and the brevity of the game. Crispin Boyer of EGM summarized, "This heavily hyped shooter/platform hybrid is intense, fun, funny, over the top - and over way too soon." GameSpot ' s Josh Smith wrote " MDK is something of

19630-483: The studio. On 10 December 2020, a teaser trailer for the next Mass Effect game was shown at The Game Awards . On 14 May 2021, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition was released on Microsoft Windows , PlayStation 4 , and the Xbox One series. On 23 August 2023, about 50 BioWare developers were laid off. A group of former employees later sued EA, seeking better severance following their layoffs. On 31 October 2024,

19781-501: The success of Baldur's Gate , the Infinity Engine was used for the games Planescape: Torment and the Icewind Dale series . The success of Baldur's Gate was followed by an expansion pack for the game: Tales of the Sword Coast . At this point, BioWare decided to return to the action genre. The company's initial thought was to develop a sequel to Shattered Steel , but eventually a sequel to MDK from Shiny Entertainment

19932-545: The target of sexual harassment. This can be coupled from similar harassment from external groups, such as during the 2014 Gamergate controversy . Major investigations into allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct that went unchecked by management, as well as discrimination by employers, have been brought up against Riot Games , Ubisoft and Activision Blizzard in the late 2010s and early 2020s, alongside smaller studios and individual developers. However, while other entertainment industries have had similar exposure through

20083-418: The time, the shooter game market was dominated by first-person shooters , most of which worked off the template set by Doom and Quake . However, the developers were never interested in making a first-person shooter. Bruty was particularly passionate about this aspect of the game, arguing "I feel the player is more involved in the world when they can see their own character." Williams agrees; "We wanted

20234-484: The toxic nature of the video game culture. This racial diversity issue has similar ties to the gender one, and similar methods to result both have been suggested, such as improving grade school education, developing games that appeal beyond the white, male gamer stereotype, and identifying toxic behavior in both video game workplaces and online communities that perpetuate discrimination against gender and race. In regards to LGBT and other gender or sexual orientations,

20385-487: The use of crunch time at Electronic Arts , a situation known as the "EA Spouses" case. A similar "Rockstar Spouses" case gained further attention in 2010 over working conditions at Rockstar San Diego . Since then, there has generally been negative perception of crunch time from most of the industry as well as from its consumers and other media. Game development had generally been a predominately male workforce. In 1989, according to Variety , women constituted only 3% of

20536-508: The video game industry typically shares the same demographics as with the larger population based on a 2005 IGDA survey. Those in the LGBT community do not find workplace issues with their identity, though work to improve the representation of LGBT themes within video games in the same manner as with racial minorities. However, LGBT developers have also come under the same type of harassment from external groups like women and racial minorities due to

20687-678: The video game industry. Whereas some video game employees believe they should follow the craft-based model used by SAG-AFTRA which would unionize based on job function, others feel an industry-wide union, regardless of job position, would be better. Starting in 2021, several smaller game studios in the United States began efforts to unionize. These mostly involved teams doing quality assurance rather than developers. These studios included three QA studios under Blizzard Entertainment : Raven Software , Blizzard Albany , and Proletariat; and Zenimax Media 's QA team. Microsoft , which had previously acquired Zenimax and announced plans to acquire Blizzard via

20838-504: The workforce in video games is estimated to be from contract labor. Similar to other tech industries, video game developers are typically not unionized . This is a result of the industry being driven more by creativity and innovation rather than production, the lack of distinction between management and employees in the white-collar area, and the pace at which the industry moves that makes union actions difficult to plan out. However, when situations related to crunch time become prevalent in

20989-429: Was Baldur's Gate , with a development cycle of three years. During this time, the three doctors continued to practice medicine. The demands of development later prompted Muzyka and Zeschuck to leave medicine and move into full-time development. Augustine Yip decided to continue with his medical practice. Baldur's Gate sold more than two million copies after its release, nearly matching the sales of Diablo . Following

21140-480: Was a doodle of an armor suit with a self-contained machine gun , and a helmet that could be used as a sniper rifle . Once he had this concept in place, he wrote a rough draft of the story, and brought together a small team of people with whom he had worked before; programmer Andy Astor, designer Tim Williams, artist and designer Bob Stevenson, animator Shawn Nelson and, later, programmer Martin Brownlow. One of

21291-1152: Was announced by the Calgary Herald and the Edmonton Journal . BioWare's co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk were named as members of the Order of Canada in December 2018 "for [their] revolutionary contributions to the video game industry as a developer and co-founder of an internationally renowned studio." Video game developer A developer may specialize in specific game engines or specific video game consoles , or may develop for several systems (including personal computers and mobile devices ). Some focus on porting games from one system to another, or translating games from one language to another. Less commonly, some do software development work in addition to games. Most video game publishers maintain development studios (such as Electronic Arts 's EA Canada , Square Enix 's studios, Activision 's Radical Entertainment , Nintendo EPD and Sony's Polyphony Digital and Naughty Dog ). However, since publishing

21442-498: Was announced on Gamescom 2014 . On 9 February 2015, BioWare Austin announced that development on Shadow Realms would not continue. Casey Hudson , the creator of the Mass Effect series, left BioWare in May 2014, while Drew Karpyshyn , writer of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the first two Mass Effect games, returned in 2015. Dragon Age ' s writer David Gaider left BioWare in January 2016. Chris Wynn and Chris Schlerf, both of whom had an important role in

21593-724: Was argued to be "exploitive", as Telltale had been known to force its employees to frequently work under "crunch time" to deliver its games. By the end of 2018, a United Kingdom trade union, Game Workers Unite UK, an affiliate of the Game Workers Unite movement, had been legally established. Following Activision Blizzard 's financial report for the previous quarter in February 2019, the company said that they would be laying off around 775 employees (about 8% of their workforce) despite having record profits for that quarter. Further calls for unionization came from this news, including

21744-516: Was becoming popular, but GPUs hadn't had much impact on game development, and as such, "graphics would be designed to operate in software ." Ultimately, the initial release of the game relied wholly on software rendering , without any additional GPU requirements. The game's original system requirements were a 60 MHz Pentium (although 90 MHz was recommended), 16 MB of RAM , 17MB of hard drive storage for basic installation (37MB for full installation), an SVGA compatible video card , and

21895-402: Was chosen for development. MDK2 was released on PC, Dreamcast , and eventually PlayStation 2 , offering BioWare their first taste of developing games for consoles . MDK2 drew the same level of praise as its predecessor but, despite the success, BioWare returned to the Baldur's Gate series for their next project. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn was released in 2000, two years after

22046-495: Was described by IGN as a "modest success" with "decent sales". Two noteworthy points were the deformable terrain (player weapon damage caused craters in the environment) and zone damage (well-aimed gunfire could shoot mounted weapons off enemies). A sequel to Shattered Steel was planned for 1998 but never realized. BioWare's founders and staff were keenly interested in both computerized and pen-and-paper variants of role-playing games . Their next development project, therefore,

22197-553: Was determined to be a role-playing game. When Interplay financed "exploratory development", BioWare presented the publishers with a demo called Battleground: Infinity . Interplay suggested that the demonstrated gameplay engine would be well-suited to the Dungeons & Dragons licence which it had acquired from Strategic Simulations . Accordingly, Infinity was reworked in line with the Dungeons & Dragons ruleset. The result

22348-412: Was revealed the game was being ported to the PlayStation by Neversoft . The Neversoft team had an initial deadline of six months. According to developer Mick West , the sheer size of the PC version presented problems for the port, but in some respects, the PlayStation version would improve on the PC version; The PC version keeps a lot of data resident whilst you go between areas. We're going to spool

22499-422: Was the frame rate . Shiny felt most PC games maintained frame rate by using big pixels in low resolution, which works as long as the game is not running SVGA mode. Based on their experiences developing for consoles, they wanted to take a different approach; using small pixels in high resolution. They set a target of maintaining a constant frame rate of at least 30fps at all times on all machines, and play-tested

22650-420: Was ultimately scrapped in favor of a more straightforward 3D "run-and-gun" style gameplay . Another early concept that was scrapped was that sniper mode would only be available to the player during the boss fight at the end of each level. This was changed so the player could use sniper mode whenever they wished. An early concept which did make it into the final game was the notion of ridiculous weaponry. One of

22801-460: Was used to produce Dragon Age II (2011). In September 2004, BioWare acquired a license to use Unreal Engine 3 from developer Epic Games . Unreal Engine 3 would ultimately be used to develop the original Mass Effect trilogy (2007–2012), as well as the remastered Mass Effect: Legendary Edition in 2021. In 2013, EA confirmed that all future games developed by BioWare will be made on DICE's Frostbite engine . All of BioWare's games since

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