Quote: "If they're still around, I wouldn't mind working for Rare. I first had experience with their work in the game "Solstice" for the original Nintendo. They later made the First James Bond (Goldeneye) and then Perfect Dark, followed by Conker's Bad Fur Day; all for the N64. They're pretty inventive with their titles, IMO."
if they're still around?
yeah, they're still about and actually going very strong.
Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo - Elements of Power, Viva Pinata and Jetpak Refueled have been their most recent work; with Viva Pinata - Party Animals due this Winter and Banjo Threeie due mid-2008.
There's also a number of Xbox Arcade Live, Nintendo DS and Xbox 360 titles due over the next year that have yet to be announced.
That said if you want to work with the guys who worked on Goldeneye, then you might want to try Free Radical Design. As that's where most of those guys went. A few more created another company just after Perfect Dark was released.
Very few of those from back in the day so to speak remain.
Free Radical Design are about to release Haze, and are currently also working on the next installment of timeSplitters. Had an interview with them about 6months back, and seemed like a friendly place to work at, plus they go by talent not what pointless degrees you have from university. Rare did the same until the Microsoft take-over now HR weeding is handled by Microsoft themselves, however there is a direct e-mail and phoneline to contact if you still want to be judged on what you can do rather than what peices of paper you've accumulated.
Something I've found over the years is despite companies making great games, the office atmosphere really is what you want to go for. Great example is id Software. As they're possibly the worst company to work for.. not cause pay is crap or such, but simply because there is alot of in-house fighting and big-headedness about everything. It's why there are positions perminantly open now, and why RAGE is the last title that Carmack himself will be working on. I believe many of the co-founders are leaving, or atleast that's the current rumours.
Generally now, I tend to ask when I get an interview is to contact some of the development to find out what their impression of working there is like. As most contracts you'll sign will be 2-4years now (might be titles you're contracted to, like EA tend to do) then you'll want to know it's a good working environment you're moving to.
I mean another one is Valve, where apart from the main group of people the company as a whole aparently is quite removed from each other similar to how Microsoft Software work.. with each dept only talking when necessary rather than on friendly day-to-day basis.
This is part of why I've come to prefer English developers, simply cause it's more of a laugh and casual attitude towards development you would get with a smaller team. Even under times of pressure, it still never really gets too stressful in my experience.
Well with possibly the exception of Core Design when Angel of Darkness was in development; but then that was more publisher based strife, demanding quite frankly the impossible. That lead to many key people quite simply walking out and finding employment elsewhere.
Alright games that come from the more laid back casual attitude developers generally aren't those heralded as "truely amazing", but atleast they tend to show how much fun the developers had working on them. There is just a different feel (or atleast I think so) to a game that was made with passion and relaxed environment to those that are just churned out because they have to.
Think one of the best examples has to be Resident Evil 4, as the PC and PS2 version just lack the same feel the GC version did; and given they're the same game you have to think "why?" but it's just a well known fact that Production Studio 4 never wanted to make a PS2 version, in-fact they fought every step of the way against it; and the PC production team (forget who it was) obviously just didn't give a crap.
I can't really tell what is lost, but they just feel they're missing something over the original.. and not just graphically speaking.
I'd rather not comment on Nintendo; I mean most new IPs just seem to die off, some before completion others just never get a sequal.
Nintendo seem grand for allowing you to push the envelope, but at the same time they seem to want you to do it with a pre-established IP to cash in on franchises with a twist.
They seem nice to work for, but just don't hold alot of faith in their actual creative freedom they allow.
