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#1 03/30/17 19:03

Iritscen
Moderator
From: NC, USA
Registered: 10/22/07

Glixel article on Oni

Seemingly inspired by the American Ghost in the Shell movie (opening tomorrow), the new gaming site Glixel has just put out a retro-gaming article on Oni, centering around an interview with Bungie West concept artist Alex Okita: Flashback: 'Oni', Bungie's Cult Classic Inspired by 'Ghost in the Shell'.  There's a nice shout-out to the Anniversary Edition as well.

There's a couple interesting facts in it that I didn't know, such as the fact that BWest was aiming ahead of the current state of graphics cards and was shocked when Apple sent them an iMac to work with and it only had like 8MB of VRAM (the iMac actually came out in 1998 with 2-6MB VRAM, but the ones that were shipping at the time of Oni's release had 8MB, so Okita might be referring to those).  I have previously speculated that the graphical downgrades that Oni suffered before release were due to low VRAM in Macs of the time, and this sounds like confirmation.  Also interesting that Alex Seropian himself was helping them meet their deadline towards the end by placing lens flares.  I'd never heard this before.

P.S.: Just a reminder that we have a collection of Okita's concept art here.  Some other concept art, some by Lorraine and some additional pieces that might be by Okita or someone else, are here.


Check out the Anniversary Edition Seven at ae.oni2.net!

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#2 03/31/17 04:03

Noneatme
Member
From: Germany, Niedersachsen
Registered: 05/01/14
Website

Re: Glixel article on Oni

I really love this part of the article:

Near the end of the project, Okita remembers, people were falling asleep on their keyboards. Then-CEO Alex Seropian helped out the team at the last minute by manually placing lens flares throughout the environments – "on anything that was a light emitter. You had to hand-place a little locator over, like, a streetlight, or a blinking taillight of a car – anything that was static. So we had our CEO doing super menial, intern-style jobs, helping us finish the game."

It reminds me that these people were also just people and no robots or anything like that.
It's also very interesting to see how they did stuff back then, along with their limited hardware. I wonder how much time they spend on what exactly. Adding lens flares to the environment seems to me something you do at the end of the level design. Were they really in that much in a hurry to finish the game on time?

Last edited by Noneatme (03/31/17 04:03)


Greetings

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#3 03/31/17 09:03

Iritscen
Moderator
From: NC, USA
Registered: 10/22/07

Re: Glixel article on Oni

Well, Bungie had already been sold to MS by that point and were supposed to be working on Halo, so yes, they had to finish Oni as fast as possible.  I think Chris Butcher once said that the last few months were solid crunch time, like 80 hour weeks or something, but I can't find where he said that now.


Check out the Anniversary Edition Seven at ae.oni2.net!

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#4 04/03/17 06:04

TOCS
Member
From: Denmark
Registered: 04/04/07

Re: Glixel article on Oni

Once again I can't help but toss myself into that world where the concept of the game is reimagined today on a workable development schedule.

On a side note since we're talking nostalgia, I just realised I've been around here for at least 10 years tomorrow! What the hell?! That's insane for me to think about. yikes

Last edited by TOCS (04/03/17 06:04)

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#5 04/03/17 08:04

Iritscen
Moderator
From: NC, USA
Registered: 10/22/07

Re: Glixel article on Oni

Ah, you've been here about 6 months longer than I have.  Yeah, it's crazy how long it's been.  Oni was only six years old when we joined the forum!


Check out the Anniversary Edition Seven at ae.oni2.net!

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#6 04/03/17 13:04

Delano762
Member
From: Poland
Registered: 12/29/10
Website

Re: Glixel article on Oni

Hopefully we'll be around here for the next 50 years, eh?


Circus Afro, Circus Afro, Polka Dot, Polka Dot!

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#7 04/04/17 14:04

paradox-01
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 01/14/07

Re: Glixel article on Oni

Well then, congratulations, TOCS. May we never stop fighting the good fight... big_smile

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