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Mirror's Edge and Battlefield art director joins Retro Studios

  • Thread starter Deleted member 774430
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Deleted member 774430

Unconfirmed Member

Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst and Battlefield V art director Jhony Ljungstedt is the latest senior recruit at Retro Studios.

At EA’s Dice studio Ljungstedt has led art direction for several titles, including Battlefield 3: Close Quarters and Back to Karland, and Medal of Honor (2010).

Retro had been advertising for an art director role for more than a year, possibly for the upcoming Metroid Prime 4.

Jhony's most recent post on Linkedin says

"Today was my last day at DICE and it’s with mixed feelings I’m leaving something that’s been part of my life for such a long time. It’s been great journey and I feel privileged to have got the chance to work with all the talented people at DICE, you will all be missed... Now I’m ready for a new chapter in my life, and looking forward to my new journey at Retro Studios. "

This follows other recent notable hirings from Retro Studios including:

- Halo creative Kyle Hefley (who worked on more than 20 titles including Call of Duty Black Ops and Sleeping Dogs), joined as character artist last August

- Stephen Dupree from Playful Corp, lead designer of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze: he returned to Retro after a two-year absence

Retro is building quite the team for the big return of Metroid Prime.
 
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CrisPy2019

Member
Retro whatever you do. Do NOT make a corridor shooter.

Do not make COD, MOH.

Make it more like MP1 and less like MP3.
Do not use any bloom and use stylistic scifi textures instead of more realistic but pixelated ones. Those won't age well.

Also do NOT forget good sound design. And whatever you do don't use "levels" use a world!

The world needs to be its own character. Levels fuck that up. (See Luigis Mansion 1 vs 2)
 

Ryu Kaiba

Member
Mirror's Edge had lovely music and art direction, sad there won't ever be another still enjoy that game for its atmosphere.
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Deleted member 774430

Unconfirmed Member
I'd suggest them to have a look at Journey of the Savage Planet (and obviously play Metroid Prime Trilogy) and see what they can learn from that.

Journey of the Savage Planet was not a perfect game: jump mechanics / hit detection could be improved as well as world/enemy variety i feel and UI maybe, but that game was a modern take of a 3D Metroidvania first person shooter and overall it's still competently done.
 
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01011001

Banned
Wrong Mirror’s Edge. :messenger_expressionless:

what do you mean wrong Mirror's Edge?
Catalyst might be controversial because of the open world, but in terms of art direction it was amazing. one of the most beautiful games ever.
I only wish it would get a Raytracing mod or a remaster on next gen with added raytracing, because that game would look un-fucking-believable with RT reflections
 
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-Arcadia-

Banned
what do you mean wrong Mirror's Edge?
Catalyst might be controversial because of the open world, but in terms of art direction it was amazing. one of the most beautiful games ever.
I only wish it would get a Raytracing mod or a remaster on next gen with added raytracing, because that game would look un-fucking-believable with RT reflections

Catalyst has its moments, but I much prefer the original’s look. There was something simpler, and more beautiful about it.
 

01011001

Banned
Catalyst has its moments, but I much prefer the original’s look. There was something simpler, and more beautiful about it.

the difference is that the original wqs set in an alternative version of the present, and Catalyst is set in the future.

so Catalyst had a scifi look while the original had a utopian present time look.

I like both styles but Catalyst is just beautiful as hell IMO.
 

Rat Rage

Member
Anyone else confused at what's going on at Retro Studios?

- No game in years. No life sign whatsoever.
- Strangely, they weren't Nintendo's first choice when it comes to Metroid Prime 4's development. And now that Bandai Namco fuck up, they went back to Retro (why not choose them in the first place?)

Metroid Prime 4 might be years away. In the meantime, I don't expect them to release anything else in between.
 

01011001

Banned
Anyone else confused at what's going on at Retro Studios?

- No game in years. No life sign whatsoever.
- Strangely, they weren't Nintendo's first choice when it comes to Metroid Prime 4's development. And now that Bandai Namco fuck up, they went back to Retro (why not choose them in the first place?)

Metroid Prime 4 might be years away. In the meantime, I don't expect them to release anything else in between.

whatever happened to that Star Fox racing game?
everyone in the media was so super 100% definitely sure that thing is real... and now? nothing...
 
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-Arcadia-

Banned
Anyone else confused at what's going on at Retro Studios?

- No game in years. No life sign whatsoever.
- Strangely, they weren't Nintendo's first choice when it comes to Metroid Prime 4's development. And now that Bandai Namco fuck up, they went back to Retro (why not choose them in the first place?)

Metroid Prime 4 might be years away. In the meantime, I don't expect them to release anything else in between.

I suspect they had a failed project(s).

With the original Metroid Prime 4 development apparently falling apart, I think Nintendo may have seen this as a chance to get two birds with one stone — rescue Metroid Prime 4, and rebuild Retro by returning to the game where it all started.
 

EDMIX

Member
Anyone else confused at what's going on at Retro Studios?

- No game in years. No life sign whatsoever.
- Strangely, they weren't Nintendo's first choice when it comes to Metroid Prime 4's development. And now that Bandai Namco fuck up, they went back to Retro (why not choose them in the first place?)

Metroid Prime 4 might be years away. In the meantime, I don't expect them to release anything else in between.

Not sure. After Nintendo's screw up of the Wii U, that team was likely assigned to start a next gen project as in Switch title and they've been working on Metroid or a reboot of it since. I know its had some development issues along the way, but for all we know it started as a Wii U game, I at least feel I'm 99% sure on that as it fits in the timeline of releases as I don't buy they just spent years doing nothing.
 
Mirror's Edge...one of the last, worthwhile franchises of EA. I regard the original game as one of the best games of that generation of games - easily in the Top 10. I never played Catalyst because of it's unavailability on GOG, but from what I have seen it looks solid.

As for Metroid, I dunno to be honest. To be honest, I'd like to see the franchise in Japanese hands. Maybe it is too with the rumors of other Metroid games in the making. I'm skeptical.

The first two Metroid Prime titles were great, but if I'm honest...who wants to have a direct sequel of the subsequent games? Either do a reboot, or a prequel to the first Prime title.
 
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-Arcadia-

Banned
Not sure. After Nintendo's screw up of the Wii U, that team was likely assigned to start a next gen project as in Switch title and they've been working on Metroid or a reboot of it since. I know its had some development issues along the way, but for all we know it started as a Wii U game, I at least feel I'm 99% sure on that as it fits in the timeline of releases as I don't buy they just spent years doing nothing.

Hopefully I’m not misunderstanding, but Retro was confirmed to not be working on Metroid Prime 4, originally.

We never got a developer name, but supposedly it was Bandai Namco Singapore that was working on it, with former Star Wars 1313 staff involved. Of course, development famously didn’t live up to Nintendo’s expectations, and the project was publicly handed over to Retro.

Before that, in the many year gap between 2014 and that announcement, nobody knows what Retro was doing.
 

01011001

Banned
Mirror's Edge...one of the last, worthwhile franchises of EA. I regard the original game as one of the best games of that generation of games - easily in the Top 10. I never played Catalyst because of it's unavailability on GOG, but from what I have seen it looks solid.

as a Mirror's Edge fanboy I might be biased but both games are absolutely great...
Catalyst gets a lot of flak for having an open world... but that open world can be completely ignored for the most part, it's more like a glorified hub world tbh.

I also am sad that at least Catalyst is only on Origin >_<
the first one is on Steam tho at least.

I played both games on literally every platform they are playable on lol
 
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EDMIX

Member
Hopefully I’m not misunderstanding, but Retro was confirmed to not be working on Metroid Prime 4, originally.

We never got a developer name, but supposedly it was Bandai Namco Singapore that was working on it, with former Star Wars 1313 staff involved. Of course, development famously didn’t live up to Nintendo’s expectations, and the project was publicly handed over to Retro.

Before that, in the many year gap between 2014 and that announcement, nobody knows what Retro was doing.

ohhhhhhhhh

This is news to me. I think they were likely working on a new IP or even Donkey Kong as it explains why Nintendo outsourced Bandai Namco. imho, they should have NEVER outsourced to such a team for such a game, maybe for the 2D ones with a limited budget or something.
 
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Deleted member 774430

Unconfirmed Member
Anyone else confused at what's going on at Retro Studios?

- No game in years. No life sign whatsoever.
- Strangely, they weren't Nintendo's first choice when it comes to Metroid Prime 4's development. And now that Bandai Namco fuck up, they went back to Retro (why not choose them in the first place?)

Metroid Prime 4 might be years away. In the meantime, I don't expect them to release anything else in between.

There were tweets of people leaving Retro in 2015-16, and even one dev who said they worked on something up until 2015 so either we'll see it or it's cancelled now.

Nintendo rejects dozens of pitches constantly, Tetsuya Takahashi said MonolithSoft sent them over 10+ business proposals, all rejected except Xenoblade. They choose very carefully what to invest on, and franchises that proved they can sell always have the priority, so it's possible all Retro's proposals were rejected.

My conspiracy theory is that:

1) Nintendo of Japan didn't completely understand th appeal of Metroid Prime at first or their internal teams in Japan weren't as interested. Sakamoto fought for the mainline series, but Prime has always been a Retro thing led by Tanabe who was busy on other projects though (Luigi's Mansion 3, Dillon's Dead-Heat Breaker). They noticed how much following there is still for Metroid Prime after the response for that cheap E3 trailer.

2) Nintendo wanted to see if other developers could have made a good Metroid Prime, possibly to then shut down Retro Studios.
Think about it: Retro hadn't released a game in years, i don't think it was that beneficial to mantain a studio that produces nothing.

So it's possible in a way the failure of the original team on developing MP4 saved Retro Studios, it gave them a reason to exist again.

I'd agree though that Metroid Prime 4 could still be years away, and i don't expect anything else from them in the meantime.

It's worth noting though that Retro Studios has always had these messy situations with people joining and leaving in between projects: before the original Metroid Prime according to interviews, after Donkey Kong Country Returns and now after Tropical Freeze.
 
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-Troid-

Banned
This whole thing seems so weird. Up until after DK Tropical Freeze Retro had been churning out good games since Prime 1. They had nothing announced for the WiiU or Switch after that and then Nintendo had some unspecified Bamco dev on it?

Then it gets scrapped and restarted by Retro anyways. Such a weird, unusual waste of development time.

I just really hope all this mess leads to a good game. Because as big of a Metroid fan as I am (Metroid Prime is my favorite game of all time), after Prime 3 it felt like moving on to DK was for the best since the idea well was starting to run dry. Here's hoping all this new talent can make a coherent blend of what made the Trilogy great with new ideas to keep it fresh.
 
Oh god! As soon as I read Battlefield art director my mind immediately went to Battlefield 3 and its terrible, TERRIBLE dirty lens effect and obnoxious lighting.
 

Gavin Stevens

Formerly 'o'dium'
I have the new mirrors edge in a box, sealed, and have yet to play it because even though I have it on one x, it never got a patch... and it looks like dog shit.

And for such a stunning game visually, i can’t bring myself to play something like this in that resolution...
 
It tilted towards realism, and it’s missing something as a result. Here’s a good example of what the game looks like most of the time, not in promo/environment shots of the best moments.



Personally, I’d be much more excited for the art director of the original joining Retro Studios. This is fine, though.

S P O I L E R A L E R T !
 

mcz117chief

Member
Cataclysm is seriously one of the most beautiful games ever created. I still play it from time to time just to run from one end of the map to another while listening the the game's theme song (Warning Call, fantastic song). How the F*** can someone criticize a PARKOUR GAME for having OPEN WORLD!? WTF!? I really liked the 1st game but the on-the-rails gameplay was really bumming me out. How can you have free running without freedom of movement? Luckily Catalyst fixed that (among many other things) and gave us actual world to move freely in. Just running around the game world, finding different paths and provoking cops is so much fun. Man, just imagine Spiderman game where you only move inside of buildings.
 

Zannegan

Member
That's a good get, and, given the kinds of games he's directed in the past, a good sign for Metroid's look. I don't mind the Pixar look at all, but if there's one Nintendo series that could take a Battlefield-esque gritty/hyperreal look, it's Metroid.

My only question now is, if they're just bringing in the art director now, how long will it take to finish? We talking Switch swan song or cross-gen title?
 

cireza

Banned
Anyone else confused at what's going on at Retro Studios?

- No game in years. No life sign whatsoever.
- Strangely, they weren't Nintendo's first choice when it comes to Metroid Prime 4's development. And now that Bandai Namco fuck up, they went back to Retro (why not choose them in the first place?)

Metroid Prime 4 might be years away. In the meantime, I don't expect them to release anything else in between.
Looks like Camelot. Nintendo probably sees them as a small team that can do whatever shit they have to do quickly, and not major games anymore ?
 
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R6Rider

Gold Member
Cataclysm is seriously one of the most beautiful games ever created. I still play it from time to time just to run from one end of the map to another while listening the the game's theme song (Warning Call, fantastic song). How the F*** can someone criticize a PARKOUR GAME for having OPEN WORLD!? WTF!? I really liked the 1st game but the on-the-rails gameplay was really bumming me out. How can you have free running without freedom of movement? Luckily Catalyst fixed that (among many other things) and gave us actual world to move freely in. Just running around the game world, finding different paths and provoking cops is so much fun. Man, just imagine Spiderman game where you only move inside of buildings.

I have to say it's nice to see other people appreciate what Catalyst did. I found the world great to go through and just relax while playing. I went into it with lower expectations because of all the negativity surrounding it, and was shocked at how good it actually was.

Both Mirror's Edge games will remain among my favorite titles for years to come.
 
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