New Jeff Minter GameCube Game - Unity

[K3V]

Here's a chat transcript, straight from the Yak himself:

[12:10] <}Yak{> here we go


[12:10] <}Yak{> Right... first things first... I am sure that nobody will be surprised when I say that I hope you like GameCubes

[12:11] <}Yak{> Back in 1994, when I finished T2K, I had an idea for another game...
[12:11] <}Yak{> something which brought together the two main strands of my work over the years...
[12:11] <}Yak{> lightsynths and games...

[12:11] <}Yak{> a project I called "Unity".
[12:12] <}Yak{> At the time hardware was nowhere near good enough to implement that game...
[12:12] <}Yak{> so it sat on the back burner of my mind.

[12:12] <}Yak{> Now, hardware is good enough...
[12:12] <}Yak{> and a few months ago I went to visit a development house where we talked about the concept.
[12:13] <}Yak{> They were very keen on the idea, and agreed to back me with funding and resources to develop the concept.
[12:13] <}Yak{> I am very happy to announce that that dev house is one of the best and most respected dev houses in the world.

[12:14] <}Yak{> The game will be developed with the backing and collaboration of Lionhead Studios

[12:14] <}Yak{> The game itself will be an abstract shooter, but... much more than that.

[12:15] <}Yak{> It'll start out as, well, the kind of thing you might expect the bloke who made t2k and t3k to make if he had decent hardware .

[12:15] <}Yak{> But it will develop into... something unique, something where the boundaries between playing a game and... performing an instrument of some kind... are blurred

[12:16] <}Yak{> I'm really pleased to have the backing and support of such a great bunch of guys... the Lionhead crew are a top lot and 110% behind me in this

[12:16] <}Yak{> Peter Molyneux Himself is most enthused

[12:17] <}Yak{> I think that, between us, we will be able to explore new frontiers of gaming pleasure and playability and come up with something truly groundbreaking

[12:18] <RiK> Peter Molyneaux has publically stated that Jeff was one of the reasons he got into the industry...

[12:18] <}Yak{> Anyway, I am now ready to take questions if anyone has any

Mmmm, abstract shooter. You can read more about it in the thread over on the Llamasoft forums http://www.llamasoft.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4209

-Kevin

[Frogacuda]

[12:14] <}Yak{> The game itself will be an abstract shooter, but... much more than that.

[12:15] <}Yak{> It'll start out as, well, the kind of thing you might expect the bloke who made t2k and t3k to make if he had decent hardware .

[12:15] <}Yak{> But it will develop into... something unique, something where the boundaries between playing a game and... performing an instrument of some kind... are blurred

A rez clone? Doesn't seem as novel the second time around, but Rez was sorta kinda Tempest 2000 inspired so I guess it's fair game. Doesn't make much commercial sense, but very little that Jeff Minter does makes sense (Nuon, anyone?)

[kingoffighters]

Holy crap, I love Minter's work, can't wait to see what he comes up with!

[Adrian]

I was just about to post this. Can't wait, Tempest 3000 was awesome (shame about the framerate) so I hope he decides to put that on Gamecube too. Minter is so talented I have no doubt that Unity will be excellent.

[Clash!]

Color me excited. But yeah from what he described it sounds like Rez might have beaten him to the punch. But you never know.

[ferricide]

oy. rez is beautiful, tempest 3000 (yes, i've played nuon) was just tacky. i'd be worried if i thought there was a reason to care. =)

seriously, i'd love to see this turn into something.

and here i thought minter was going to announce a game for the phantom. =) downward trending (jaguar -> nuon) dictates it...

[sleeve]

Sweet. Minter is the daddy.

[K3V]

Originally posted by Frogacuda
A rez clone? Doesn't seem as novel the second time around, but Rez was sorta kinda Tempest 2000 inspired so I guess it's fair game. Doesn't make much commercial sense, but very little that Jeff Minter does makes sense (Nuon, anyone?)

Originally posted by Yak Well, people are bound to make comparisons between Unity and Rez, but Unity is actually based on ideas I have had lying around in my head since 1994. Rez is an abstract shooter, true, but in a very self-consciously TRON style, and its Panzer Dragoon roots are very evident.

Unity will be... Unity .

\
(:-) - Yak
/

[NeoZeedeater]

I was playing some Attack of the Mutant Camels yesterday and thinking we need a new Minter game.

I'm very interested in this new game.

[Shooting Love]

Originally posted by Yak
...Rez is an abstract shooter, true, but in a very self-consciously TRON style, and its Panzer Dragoon roots are very evident

word to our mothers!

I'll be looking forward to the fruition of Minter's intentions.
..A classic game-artist in the finest sence

[Agent X]

Wow, that's great news! I can't wait to learn more about this game!

[Kbu Chan]

Awesome freakin news!! I've wondered what he'd been up to. I've even fantasized that he'd make a GC game(no, really), but I never really even believed it would happen. Damn!!!. All I need to know now is when can I pay for it.

[Viper]

Interesting...very interesting. I'll look forward to seeing how Unity turns out. It's about time Minter got the chance to gain the attention of the mainstream. His games have had a tendency to be overlooked in the past, due to the fact that they were developed for fairly obscure platforms.

[Tracer]

Sounds frucking great! Minter is a mad genius so... I'm game for Unity. I wonder how long it'll be till it hits. Probably ages. A guy like Minter doing something he consideres ambitious (which is heavy for Minter) and having the help of 'take your sweet time' Lionhead Studios this game may be my GOTY of '07.

[PBMax]

Originally posted by Frogacuda
A rez clone? Doesn't seem as novel the second time around, but Rez was sorta kinda Tempest 2000 inspired so I guess it's fair game. Doesn't make much commercial sense, but very little that Jeff Minter does makes sense (Nuon, anyone?)

You've got to be joking.

As cool as Rez is, it doesn't even come close to the sheer gameplay intensity of Minter's best shooters.

I have no doubt that this game will be incredible.

[K3V]

Minter has said that he's looking at a year plus development time - probably in the area of 18 months. But given that he worked on T3K for what, 12 years ( )...I wouldn't be suprised to see that get extended.

You can't rush a masterpiece, after all.

-Kevin

[NeoZeedeater]

I don't see the answer at the Llamasoft website so I'll ask here.

Is there a way to get Gridrunner++ to work with a controller? I understand the game was designed for a mouse but I think I would enjoy it much more with my Sidewinder. The Vic20/C64/Atari version was designed for a joystick, why not this remake?

[K3V]

I don't believe you can. Though I've never tried a controller, I think Jeff made it work with a mouse only.

Great game, though. Perfect for popping up at work from time to time and blasting away

-Kevin

[NeoZeedeater]

Damn. I figured it might be mouse-only since movements are based on gliding along at different speeds.

It is an awesome game though. I wish stuff like it would get ported to console for more exposure.

[K3V]

Cube Europe has posted up some of the first Unity screenshots:

http://www.cube-europe.com/screensho...d=unity&page=1

Love that Jeff Minter style

EDIT: Turns out these are VLM-3 screenshots, and not Unity ones. Neato anyways, though

-Kevin

[Tracer]

It's a Winamp plug-in for Gamecube!

Seriously - I anticipate this very much.

[epmode]

Originally posted by Tracer
It's a Winamp plug-in for Gamecube!

yeah, the screenshots are definately reminiscent of geiss and milkdrop.

[Adrian]

I'll host some better screens:

[JM]

This looks like it will be such a worthy addition to the GC's lineup. Now my anxiously awaited game list has 2 games on it & they are both on the GC. Who would have thought?

JM

[James]

It's on my must-have list. Too bad it's not on a different system, though, I'd love to see Virtual Light Machine as an unlockable bonus. Much as I love my Gamecube that's one thing I think I can comfortably rule out seeing on it.

Greedy greedy greedy...

James

[K3V]

IGN has reported on Unity now as well:

http://cube.ign.com/articles/384/384024p1.html

-Kevin