Epic games together with People Can Fly! :D

[}TCP{Marcin.B.BlackT32]

Not long time ago I have read that Epic Games is going to coop with Polish (hehe Poland my lovely country ) developer People Can Fly know from Painkiller. Epic is pretty much impressed of People Can Fly programers' skills. Here is the whole article:

EPIC GAMES ACQUIRES MAJORITY STAKE IN PEOPLE CAN FLY

Warsaw, Poland August 20th, 2007 - Epic Games today announced that it has acquired a majority interest in Warsaw, Poland-based game developer People Can Fly. People Can Fly (“PCF”) is best known for creating the hit PC game, Painkiller, but most recently has been collaborating with Epic on the PC version of Gears of War®. In addition the two companies are collaborating on a new intellectual property which Epic will be previewing privately to publishers at Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany this week.

The relationship began last year when People Can Fly was evaluating Unreal® Engine 3 to use for a new multi-platform game project. “PCF showed us their early prototypes within only a few weeks and we were totally blown away,” said Mark Rein, Vice President, Epic Games, Inc. “The quality of their work was extremely high, and knew we had to find a way to work more closely with them in the future.” Epic hired PCF to work on the PC version of Gears of War, and collaborated with them on design of a new IP.

“Working with this team of guys who love making over-the-top shooters was a blast, and we didn’t want it to end,” said Dr. Michael Capps, President of Epic Games. “And their work was outstanding. The multiplayer levels they created for Gears PC look as good or better than the original. How could we not jump at the opportunity to work together on a long-term basis?”.

“We are very excited to be working with Epic Games” said Adrian Chmielarz, Creative Director and Co-Owner of People Can Fly. “To be able to work with the best technology company in the business and collaborate on making amazing fantastic games is an offer you just can’t refuse. Making games is hard work but it is also great fun. Working with Epic reduces the stress of being an independent developer and lets us focus even more on fun side of the business.”

About People Can Fly
People Can Fly is a 50-person game development studio founded in February 2002 and located in Warsaw, Poland. PCF’s team is composed of industry veterans, with experience dating back to 1993.

PCF’s first game - Painkiller - turned out to be a great success. The game was awarded numerous industry awards (e.g. Single-Player Shooter of the Year by Computer Gaming World; E3 - Best Shooter Award, E3 - Biggest Surprise Award) and received enthusiastic reviews from the gaming press. The game’s average rating is 82% based on 250+ reviews (source: GameRankings.com). It was chosen as the official tournament game for the CPL World Tour, which offered the largest cash prize ever for a computer game tournament.

After releasing Painkiller in April 2004, the team worked on online community support, then started the work on PK’s Expansion Pack called Painkiller: Battle out of Hell, which was finished in only five months and released end of November 2004. After the expansion pack had gone gold, PCF started working on their first console project - Painkiller: Hell Wars (Xbox). The game was released in July 2006.

[}TCP{Snowbird]

I did not read it, I do not have that much time. But it sounds interesting. Can you make a brief statement about it?

[}TCP{Killer]

those guys from painkiller did a decent job , hell i was a bit adicted to painkiller for over 5 months

[}TCP{Marcin.B.BlackT32]

I think it would be great opportunity to get a job in Epic Games. its really one of my dreams .

[}TCP{Wolf]

Well surpassing Epic in programming skill isn't all that difficult They ought to be impressed by about every single one of their competitors...

[}TCP{Marcin.B.BlackT32]

But still this is success.

[}TCP{ZzCaT]

Well surpassing Epic in programming skill isn't all that difficult They ought to be impressed by about every single one of their competitors...

Well well... You cannot possibly be serious about that. I challenge you to make a better engine.

[}TCP{Wolf]

Well surpassing Epic in programming skill isn't all that difficult They ought to be impressed by about every single one of their competitors...

Well well... You cannot possibly be serious about that. I challenge you to make a better engine.

Already been done, what was the name of that Far-Cry sequel again... umm...


But that's beside the point. I was referring to all the mistakes and obvious blunders they put in the scourcecodes (both native and script). They may have improved over the years I wouldn't know but from Unreal's and UT's point of view Epic programmers are a bunch of wussies. Beautiful design ideas but often pathetically implemented...

Don't ask me for example or a buglist because we all know how extensive those are....

[}TCP{ZzCaT]

Ah you mean Crysis? The fact that someone can write a cry-tek engine, which is beautiful by the way, does not mean the UT engine is bad.

UT runs very smooth on all kinds of hardware and UT is a very popular game. Far Cry is harly played online. And if you take the best hardware currently available to home users, then you would have the minimum specs for Crysis. I really wouln't know what to buy if I wanted to play that game but the pc would cost at least 2000 euro.

[}TCP{Marcin.B.BlackT32]

BTW: Im interested what will come out with this cooperation. I guess it must be something good.

[}TCP{Ramses]

Well surpassing Epic in programming skill isn't all that difficult They ought to be impressed by about every single one of their competitors...

lol Wolf .... but they did produce one of the most outstanding games of all time, bugs notwithdstanding

[}TCP{Wolf]

I think iD and Raven put up a damn good competition. The Quake engine is in many aspects equal or even superior, however, the Unreal engine with its scripting language makes it much more flexible and powerful - but also more susceptible to problems.

Don't get me wrong, the Unreal Engine is wonderful, but the programmers did an absolutely LOUSY JOB in many many MANY aspects of it, starting with the net code, ending with all the security vulnerabilities - yes the quake engine is plagued by the latter too. I have heard about one serious flaw in the Q3 engine whereas the list on the Unreal Engine is seemingly endless.

Concerning beauty, I think Soldier Of Furtune and Heretic II (both Quake-II engine games back when 3DFX was popular) put Unreal quite in the perspective.