Sensible Soccer & Cannon Fodder makes a comeback

[kolorabi]

Unfortunately, only for the mobile market, but it's still interesting. What's more, the team creating these titles consists of veterans from Sensible Software and Bitmap Brothers, including John Hare and Mike Montgomery.

Here's an in-depth interview with them: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=56179

A few quotes:

Eurogamer: How faithful to the original Amiga versions will Sensible Soccer and Cannon Fodder be?

Jon Hare: Remarkably faithful, Sensible Soccer is already playing incredibly well and we are squeezing as many of the tactical and game type options in as we possibly can, yet again it will be the football game written by football fans for football fans and it will piss all over FIFA.
-snip-

Eurogamer: Would you consider reviving other lost classics from the Sensible archive, such as Wizball and Megalomania?

Jon Hare: Yes we would consider this, either as the developer directly or as the overseeing design/production company, although as I have already stated we do not want to get caught in the trap of just reproducing golden oldies.
-snip-

Edit: Mods, feel free to move this thread to retrogaming & general discussion if it's more appropriate there.

[Unknown_K]

Whats wrong with just reproducing golden oldies for another platform? Most new games (like new movies) are the same old shit with a very minor twist to them.

[kolorabi]

Originally Posted by Unknown_K

Whats wrong with just reproducing golden oldies for another platform? Most new games (like new movies) are the same old shit with a very minor twist to them.

I guess if I were a game designer responsible for some of the coolest games in history, I'd probably not feel entirely comfortable just converting old games to new platforms. I'd want to make something new.

[Unknown_K]

Has this guy done anything new lately?

Jon Hare is working on some dubious game in which you have to take films of dinosaurs. It looks dismal; a rip off of Pokemon Snap. Has the man who gave us Wizball, Cannon and Sensi come to this?

[kolorabi]

Originally Posted by Unknown_K

Has this guy done anything new lately?

Don't know how easy it is to get stuff done without an influental position in a software company. He says a few things about the past couple of years in the interview.

Also, John Hare is not the only Amiga game designer in the company. Here's the two others (though several titles are missing from the HOL registry, due to the fact that the database entries for the games haven't been fully completed yet):

John Phillips: http://hol.abime.net/get.list?N_ref_artist=195 (http://www.mobygames.com/developer/s...loperId=21916/)
Mike Montgomery: http://hol.abime.net/get.list?N_ref_artist=474 (http://www.mobygames.com/developer/s...eloperId=1739/)

[Amiga1992]

The years don't come alone, they say

Originally Posted by Akira

The years don't come alone, they say

Do they? It's a new one on me

[manicx]

The interesting story here is that Codemasters were not happy with Hare's recent work. The thing in question is whether they are now completely intependent as a new company or they manage to get the Sensible Software name out of the Codemasters (I doubt it). I suppose they got out and formed a brand new software house which means that they won't be able to use the name Sensible in their work anymore... Is this sensible?

[kolorabi]

I don't see why they should try to get the name Sensible Software, as they're called Tower Studios and have just as many ties to The Bitmap Brothers as they have to Sensible Software.

As for the right to use the original game titles, Kuju Games got these through negotiations with Codemasters. From the interview:

Eurogamer: Presumably Codemasters still owns the Sensible IP - how have you managed to re-use that for Sensible Soccer and Cannon Fodder? Have you had to sub-license it back or did you come up with a deal to buy it back?

Jon Hare: Kuju did the deal with Codemasters for the license, and a deal with Tower for the development.

[7-Zark-7]

In a manner of speaking though, it was probably regarded as a "safe" project to do old game conversions-
a) Although old, track record to show game was popular in its heyday
b) Possibility that people with mobile may recall old game & want it.

[StarEye]

While I will keep my eyes on this, I'm extremely suspicious. Not only have I yet to see a decent cellphone to play games on, but how on earth are they supposed to make a Sensible Soccer game without 8-way direction controls? Aren't cellphone games only 4-ways?

[Adeptus]

Well, there's always the N-Gage...

[darkwave]

Oh, how I want Sensi for my N-Gage!
Please let there be SWOS!

[Amiga1992]

Yup I was thinking about the controls as well.. not only that, you can't do the aftertouch either, you can't press more than one button at the same time, on any cellphone.

[StarEye]

I can't see why they don't aim for the handheld console market instead? I mean, the experience they have on the amiga is perfect for GBA style games, they could make Speedball 3, Cadaver 2, Chaos Engine 3, Mega Lo Mania 2, Cannon Fodder 3 etc etc

Of course, they could also make a new brandname for themselves. A lot of the handheld-only games have gotten so much success that they get a stationary console version as well. Like Golden Sun and Advance Wars.

[manicx]

Mobile gaming sucks...

[Unknown_K]

Someday in the not so distant future we will be able to fit 20 years of arcade games and play them on a MAME equipped handheld with a nice screen.

[7-Zark-7]

Originally Posted by StarEye

I can't see why they don't aim for the handheld console market instead? I mean, the experience they have on the amiga is perfect for GBA style games, they could make Speedball 3, Cadaver 2, Chaos Engine 3, Mega Lo Mania 2, Cannon Fodder 3 etc etc

Of course, they could also make a new brandname for themselves. A lot of the handheld-only games have gotten so much success that they get a stationary console version as well. Like Golden Sun and Advance Wars.

Possibly cheaper than Nintendo? I could imagine Nokia reps mugging developers down dark alleyways to beg them to write for the Ngage!

[StarEye]

Yeah, but you can bet your ass that Sony is currently swooping up all potential developers, and knowing Sony their quality control isn't exactly as hard to pass as Nintendos.