History of Arkane Studios

After E3 2018, I became extremely curious about what Arkane Studios would do now, having released an addition to Prey. A studio that is used to working purely on single-player games. What project will she take on in this era of dominance of battle royales and service games?? What a reason to plunge into the history of the studio, fortunately enough time has passed since my last attempt to refresh the information.
This is the story of Arkane Studios.

Formation of your own style

The studio was founded in 1999 year in Lyon — France, former employees Electronic Arts And Atari. The main initiator among them was the Frenchman Rafael Colantonio. Once upon a time, Raphael quite accidentally got into the gaming industry thanks to a competition for knowledge of the universe Ultima, held by Electronic Arts. At one point, EA changed the focus of its activities to sports games, which greatly disappointed Rafael, provoking his quick departure. With his last money, he assembled a studio, whose employees decided to concentrate on extraordinary ideas and interesting approaches, as opposed to the conveyor belt of industry mastodons.

All the developments resulted in the studio’s first project, called Arx Fatalis. The game was heavily inspired Ultima Underworld and it was originally planned to be a threequel to this franchise, but there was a hitch with the rights and the name had to be changed. Which did not at all exclude a common mood with the progenitor.
Using old connections with colleagues from EA, Rafael enlisted help Paul Neurath, one of the main developers of the Ultima series. The team continued to work stubbornly, but the mentioned mistake with the release of a game under the Ultima franchise put the release into question. Fortunately, we managed to reach an agreement with the publisher JoWooD Productions, which finally determined the release date of the project in 2002.

Arx Fatalis

June 28, 2002

MS Windows, Xbox

The result was an extremely atypical and interesting RPG, which unfortunately few people noticed at the time. The game presented an underground world to explore, full of characters, events and dangers. Plot-wise, we play as a nameless prisoner who is called upon to destroy the God of Destruction. The player will lead his character towards this throughout the game, solving various problems along the way.
The game mechanics, unique in its kind, are much more interesting here. There are several modes, inventory manipulation, exploration and combat. Let’s start with the first: in addition to the usual dragging into your pocket of everything that is bad, there are quite a lot of features similar to quests. In this way, you can combine a rolling pin and dough to get a raw bun, and then bake it on any of the fires. You can also use a mortar to create potion ingredients from plants.
Cooking is needed so that the character is susceptible to hunger, and he simply cannot eat raw food. You can practice alchemy, it will be useful in creating a variety of potions. There is also blacksmithing, which allows you to repair things with the proper level of training. You can also cast magic using signs found while wandering through the corridors of the game world. By combining them you can achieve a certain effect from spells, be it lighting a light or throwing a fireball. Spells can be memorized for quick use in battle.
Exploration is the usual mechanics where we walk around locations, look for things, talk to people, interact with the environment by dragging objects and finding secrets throughout the game world. Locations are filled with hidden things that help in the passage, and in every possible way facilitate the further game. But the battle takes place in the manner TES: Morrowind. And this is not counting the traditional RPG leveling, arranging points according to skills and, thanks to this, an inclination towards any class.

Ultimately, the game turned out to be interesting and exciting, and requires getting used to the overloaded controls, but can really captivate. Unfortunately, the game was held hostage by the time of its release and found itself in the shadow of more advertised and successful games. But the studio did not despair, because the audience liked the game, even though it was small. Therefore, the studio decided to start working on a sequel, but to make it more technologically advanced, because Far Cry And Half Life 2 set the bar high. For this purpose, Arkane bought Source and began looking for a larger publisher.

This is where a happy coincidence came into play. French publishing house Ubisoft planned to make a linear RPG based on the recently acquired Heroes of Might and Magic franchise. And with a job offer they went to their fellow countrymen from Arkane. The latter immediately seized on such an interesting business, in addition, the French were allowed to make the game whatever they wanted, but, naturally, without deviating too much from the original task.
The first thing game designers began to think about was to make the role-playing model simpler, along with the mechanics. Involved in the design work The Building Studios, which was organized by a former designer Half Life 2 — Victor Antonov. His artistic vision will still affect the work of the studio itself.

And then everything else followed, including adjusting what had already been done to the universe of Might and Magic. Development continued for quite a long time, but already in 2006 the world saw something completely new. Again from Arkane.

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic

December 21, 2006
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MS Windows, Xbox 360

Dark Messiah felt very similar to Arx Fatalis. Only the role-playing system has become really simpler compared to the studio’s previous game. We play as a sorcerer’s apprentice, and are free to develop the character in any direction we want. However, we do not have specific characteristics in the usual form; we have to invest experience points in certain skill branches, of which there are only three types: warrior, mage and assassin. And in each there is also a branching and the desired perks become more and more expensive each time. This dictates not only a certain style of passage, but also the very pace of the subsequent game.
Improved skills also influence what weapons and clothes the character can wear. Armor and weapons have their own unique properties, allowing you to choose the ideal class and direction for development.
The locations, although linear, have enough space to play the chosen role. So you can either slip past the guards unnoticed, or secretly cut the throats of everyone one by one, or just walk right through. The combat system, excellent in every sense, helps in all this. A large number of different animations of swinging a sword, daggers, and a staff, plus division into strong and weak blows, blocking and using magic. And of course, how can we not mention the opportunity to kick the enemy into the abyss, onto stakes, or somewhere else?. And yes, the legs are not only visible here, but the body itself is felt almost physically.
The plot takes place in the world of the Fifth Heroes and tells the story of Saref, a student of the magician Fenrir, who dreams of adventure. And in fact, he gets them when he and his teacher find a mysterious artifact – the Skull of Shadows. It is somehow connected with the imminent arrival of the Dark Messiah in the world.
The game has completely correct physics, we can throw boxes at opponents, break them, kick them, and many riddles are tied to this (the legacy of Half Life 2 in action). Bottom line, the game is just very fun to play. The atmosphere grabs you and doesn’t want to let go until the very end. But in addition to the main game Floodgate Entertainment made a multiplayer mode.

Forming your own cemetery

Dark Messiah came out very original and some people liked it, but others not at all. However, the release was quite loud, both due to the connection with Heroes, and because the game was created on Source and she looked very beautiful (even now she looks pretty good).
Arkane showed itself to the world, opened an office in Austin, Texas, and was now a fairly respected studio and open to suggestions. The first came from former colleagues from Electronic Arts. The fact was that Steven Spielberg, who had long wanted to take part in the creation of a game according to his own idea, began to collaborate with a large publisher. Arkane didn’t mind and started preparing the concept LMNO. It sounded like this: “A first-person game with RPG elements and stylish parkour in a modern setting”.

One of the main roles was Eve – an alien with whom the player will have some relationship. The main character must show her the living world around, but due to Eve’s origin, he is called upon to protect her from the government. The project was truly ambitious, but due to circumstances beyond Arkane’s control, development was stopped, which is truly a pity. Perhaps this happened because Electronic Arts did not need another parkour game (the first one was Mirror’s Edge from DICE).

The Crossing

But for now LMNO did not burst into the life of the studio, but was a figment of Spielberg’s imagination, Arkane announced their independent project called The Crossing. The game was supposed to be the first to combine both single player and multiplayer. The game world, in which the medieval Templars managed to take control of Paris, was planned to be open in the style of Team Deathmatch, and each player would follow his own plot, killing along the way or hiding from equally real enemies.

The trailer caused a stir and made The Crossing expected, all thanks to the non-trivial idea of ​​both gameplay and story. Viktor Antonov again worked on the game design, and in tandem with Arkane they created exactly the dream project. Experiment.

The game was prepared to be quite intriguing and monstrous. This is how she scared away the publishers who were offered to release the game by Arkane. Many of the 20 publishers refused to undertake the implementation, and those who agreed demanded the release of the game not only on PCs, but also on consoles. And then another problem opened up: the Source engine was poorly optimized for PlayStation 3. This aspect almost completely put an end to the project. And the lid was nailed down by the problem with the implementation of correct matchmaking.

We wanted to make The Crossing so bad. And when we stopped, I felt like I had made a huge mistake. But we would not be able to do this with this particular publisher (approx. the publisher’s name has been omitted). We canceled the agreement because I didn’t believe one percent in success.

Rafael Colantonio

Having frozen the project, Arkane continued to work on LMNO for some time until the project was closed. The two canceled projects were not only an emotional failure for the studio, but also a financial one. Therefore, I had to get out as a hired force.
Arkane was involved in the development Return to Ravenholm, which is referred to by many as Half-Life 2: Episode Four. Valve positioned it as a prequel to the events of Episode Two, and at one point realizing that they had done enough in the second part and there was nothing more to say, Gabe Newell canceled the order to develop the episode. And so the gaming community was left even without a spin-off for the Half Life series.

After the cancellation of many projects, Arkane finally went into apprenticeship. So they helped a little Threearch in 2008 with their Call of Duty World At War. The studio was creating some multiplayer maps for the game, and that’s all. But in for Take Two the studio provided design, animation and drawing services in the project Bioshock 2. By the way, a whole conglomerate of studios was involved in helping with this game, so it’s not surprising that the game turned out to be frankly secondary.

Shaping your destiny

And the studio would have been running wild until Arkane fell under the wing in August 2010 ZeniMax Studios. Having assessed all past achievements, the studio was expanded and added to the team of people who had previously worked on such high-profile projects as Deus Ex And Half-Life 2. The studio was given funding in exchange for an excellent idea, and Arkane took most of their work on The Crossing, Viktor Antonov, and invited Harvey Smith to lead the project (he worked on System Shock And Deus Ex) and the idea of ​​a game with open locations and wide variability, and plunged headlong into work.

Dishonored absorbed everything that the studio did previously and what the new employees did before working at Arkane. This was reflected in the appearance, the plot, and the gameplay. We spent more time working on the design, following our ideas and desire to create a real living world that you believe in. Development continued for a long time, but evenly, and by the beginning of October 2012, Dishonored was ready to hit the shelves of both retail stores and digital stores.

Dishonored

October 9, 2012

MS Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4

The eye is immediately drawn to the graphics and design. The good old man is responsible for all the beauty Unreal Engine 3. And the environment is truly mesmerizing with its architecture and interesting solutions. Analogies when looking at the city are with London of the Victorian era, City 17 and medieval castles. Every street in Dunwall is 19th century mixed with an industrial spirit. The background is as follows – the city is an industrial center for the extraction of fuel – blubber.
And here the plot spreads out in a thin layer. We play the Lord Protector of the Empress, Corvo Attano, who arrives in the capital to inform his mistress that help in the fight against the plague will not arrive. And at the same time, unknown people kill the empress and kidnap her daughter, and Corvo is framed for murder. Having rotted in prison for six months, the hero, not without outside help, gets out into freedom, finds the strength to take revenge, and also save little Emilie. This is how the beginning sounds, and the ending will depend on the style of passage.
The plot and gameplay aspects are justified. Since we are now a killer, we must act stealthily. A short blade and a crossbow with different bolts will help with this. In addition, Corvo teaches the Alien, giving him a mark and magical power. The hero is able to teleport short distances, see enemies and active places through walls, in short, he acquires various perks for himself. They can be bought and upgraded for runes, just like weapons for money.
By combining skills and thinking outside the box, we can be an invisible shadow on the streets. Well, or kill everyone left and right, since sword fights look indistinguishable from Dark Messiah. You can also explore locations and complete secondary tasks from random people.
Dishonored is very harmoniously executed. Nice graphics, interesting and varied gameplay, freedom in passing methods, as well as non-linearity. A plus is an extremely detailed background with its conspiracies, crises, peculiarities of the world and its own laws. I want to immerse myself in this world and find out all the secrets. The developers did their best, which is why their game won quite a lot of awards, including game of the year.

For Arkane, this was a long-awaited breakthrough to a new level of development and a good statement about itself, and not without the help of its name Bethesda. And after a truly successful worldwide release, no one raised the question of developing a sequel. Harvey Smith again took the helm of development and it would be stupid to make the same game a second time, so the following changes awaited the project: firstly, the engine was changed from Unreal Engine 3 on a just modified engine “Void” – derivative from idTech 5. Secondly, it was decided to give the main character a voice, which he was deprived of in the first part according to all the canons of Half Life. And thirdly, Emily also became a playable character.

With all these introductions, the work began. Over Dishonored II a team from Austin was working when Arkane from the French city of Lyon began parallel work on a new Prey. This castling subsequently affected the final quality of the game in technical terms, but otherwise the team knew what to do and soon the world saw the second part of Dishonored.