Impressions Games officially toes-up

[Myrmidon]

A sad day for all concerned, and it makes one that much more grateful for a group like TM to continue the excellent tradition of innovative gameplay. Please, never let yourselves be purchased by a producer again: as independents you guys were awesome!

And it can be done -- there is a small group out of the Netherlands that has put out 3 fantastic TBS fantasy games in the space of about 7 years while remaining free. I hope that you remain independents as well.

[EmperorJay]

Amen to that :) .

Altough I must say that it makes me sad that Imps is officialy no more, even as it was already no more for a while now in practise. :(

[Celebithil Dae]

Agreed, it is a sad thing. Dont become overy corporate PLEEESE! I jsut want good games, and impre4ssions put out several way back when. Heck, i was a big supporter before i even know i was a big supporter! Then i looked at my little collection, and it was motly impressions, impressions/sierra stuff.

Now i hope to have a lot of TM soon... and i dont think i'll be disappointed!

[Afterburner]

Death to Corporate, Marketing Driven Gaming Companies!

The system is tilted heavily towards the big companies, because they get all the shelf space, squeezing out the smaller games. It's hard to be a small, independent gaming company in the current market.

Hard, but not impossible. GO TILTED MILL!

[Atlantean Relic]

Where did you see this? Do you have a link to the annoucement?

[Myrmidon]

It was announced at Sierra's Lords of the Realm 3 forum. The latest crop of Imps staffers are all out of jobs; some of the very lucky ones are joining the TM team.

[Josh]

I heard all that on the Lords boards except "the very lucky ones are joining the TM team."

Was that said somewhere?

[Myrmidon]

Brett's final post indicated that Tony made the transition over -- IIRC there was another post somewhere that indicated that a few others were headed this way as well.

[Celebithil Dae]

Yeah, we were told it was goin up at the LOM forums too. I also am at the LOTR forums too... im everywhere :s

I'd like to see some of 'em end up over here though.THey were some nice guys.

[skycycle]

I was just about to ask if any of those guys were going to be recruited by TM :rolleyes: Anyhow, hello to all you citybuilding fans out there :D

[Jayhawk]

Sad news indeed.
I hope they and their ideas wll find proper homes at other companies.

there is a small group out of the Netherlands that has put out 3 fantastic TBS fantasy games
Triumph? Of Age of Wonders fame?

[Myrmidon]

Heh -- yes -- it's Triumph, and the Age of Wonders trilogy :)

It wasn't my intent to give a plug to a competitor on the TM boards, but merely to show that smaller independents do exist and can do quite well. :o

That was the way Impressions started out as well, as an independent, until they were bought out by Sierra (and Sierra in turn was bought out by Vivendi). IMNSHO things went downhill quickly for Impressions after the Sierra acquisition.

My hope is that this time around, TM can avoid being acquired by a producer like Sierra again.

[Tony Leier]

As far as who at TiltedMill used to be at Impressions, just take a look at the People pages at the Tilted Mill website- those with Impressions games in their credits worked at Impressions. Not surprisingly, it's a lot of us.

[Jayhawk]

Hmmm, a quick count makes that...14 out of 26?


That's an impressive list, btw, it just spells out one thing: Great Things To Come

[Pecunia]

Hmmm, a quick count makes that...14 out of 26?
My 'quick count' gets me 17 out of 26..

[GillB]

Obviously counting isn't Jay's strong point :cool:

[Celebithil Dae]

we're gamers ;) not mathematicians!

[Josh]

I like this one better-

Damn it Jim, Im a Gamer not a Mathematician!


:D

[EmperorJay]

we're gamers ;) not mathematicians!

I know some mathematicians that would count as gamers ;) *points at some fansites for the various CB games*

[Pecunia]

we're gamers ;) not mathematicians!
If I qualify as a mathematician, I don't know, but I do know I am a bean counter when it comes to the citybuilding games ;)

[Jayhawk]

My 'quick count' gets me 17 out of 26..
My guess is you counted more slowly than I did :p

[Lord Huh]

My old papy used to say to things :

1. Huh?

2. Good riddence to bad rubbish

good bye to sandra dee....ohhh I mean impressions....lol

[PCDania]

we're gamers ;) not mathematicians!
Quite funny some of the contests at the Caesar3 Olympics back in '99 were won by beancounters who had calculated exactly when to do what and how much was needed when leading to jawdropping results :)

[Elvenwarrior2001]

I'm sorta both...;)

And TM...please do some TBS games! RTS isn't all it's cut out to be. TBS is SO much better. :)

Elven

[Nebhotep]

No offence to anyone meant, but I prefer RTC over TBS... I just don't enjoy Turn-based games, unless they're actual social games, playing against real people... I like my RTS games better.

[Afterburner]

So what have we learned today, boys and girls?

Different people like different stuff. :D

[Elvenwarrior2001]

Yeah. My personal preference is simply for the reason that I like strategy a whole lot. And I like to be able to think out my moves and win with total strategy. In too many RTSs it's whoever clickes fastest, wins. With minimum strategy. However, I mean not offense to those RTSs that may be good. I've jjust seen way too many click-fests and I prefer the TBS style. Some developers don't think there's a market for TBS, and the RTS is a must. Well there definitely is a market for both.

Elven

[Eddy]

I really liked the quality of the games Impressions produced. I hope the staff got good jobs.

[Celebithil Dae]

Well, half of em are here. Most of these guys made most of the Imps. games, excepting LOTR3. So this is almost impresisons with a new name, only its gonne be better ;)

[Elvenwarrior2001]

Ditto CD! :D This is pretty much Imps reincarnated! :)

Elven

[Atlantean Relic]

I wonder if this will be a trend. A similar thing happened to Westwood. I can assume that it the large company model of game release that must drive some developers crazy.

[Afterburner]

I wonder if this will be a trend. A similar thing happened to Westwood. I can assume that it the large company model of game release that must drive some developers crazy.

Game Developers are creative, imagination-driven people who are interested in making whatever they are inspired to make.

Game Publishers are conservative, money-driven people who are interested in publishing things which will make the most money, and not publishing things which won't make the most money.

These things are often incompatible, usually to the detriment of the developers, who find themselves hamstrung by requests for features they don't really feel like including (multiplayer, say) because the market research says that those features are the hot new thing These Kids Today(tm) are paying money for.

It was just that sort of top-down, marketing-driven approach from most game publishers that led to the creation of the Gathering of Developers publishing house.

[Elvenwarrior2001]

That's why developers should start their own company. ;) The best ones always seem to be like that. TM...Cyan. Yeah baby!

Elven

[Eddy]

The only problem with having developers in charge is that the games that they make are often stunning examples of what can be done when the marketers are out of the loop, but because marketing isn't important the games are unknown. I can think of two games that I have that are good, but no one has ever heard of them which is a shame because both are better than the cookie cutter RTS clickfests out there.

Check out my lack of L337 html skills!

King of Dragon's Pass - http://www.a-sharp.com

Strange Adventures in Infinite Space http://digital-eel.com/sais/

[Elvenwarrior2001]

137$ %|<||> 7|-|3 |>@7|-|37|< 1337$|>3@<|<

Translation: Let's skip the pathetic "leet speak." There's nothing elite about it. No offense, but I don't like 1337. :P

Thanx for the links though. ;)

Elven

[Keith]

....I can think of two games that I have that are good, but no one has ever heard of them which is a shame because both are better than the cookie cutter RTS clickfests out there......
Little wonder. It would hard to sell a game idea to a publisher with a developer name like "Cheapass" behind it.
http://members.aol.com/dheitm8612/horus2.gif
Keith Heitmann
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dheitm8612@aol.com (http://mailto:dheitm8612@aol.com/)
Pharaoh Music Jukebox (http://members.aol.com/dheitm8612/java/pharaoh.htm)

[Atihotep]

That's why developers should start their own company. ;) The best ones always seem to be like that. TM...Cyan. Yeah baby!
Cyan's gone too, hasn't it? I seem to recall some humorously titled article like 'Myst Partnership is riven', referring to the Cyan twins (can't quite recall the names) deciding not to work together any more.

Atihotep
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Slowly progressing through Pharaoh
I'm up to Meidum!

[Uatch-Khepheru]

Cyan's gone too, hasn't it? I seem to recall some humorously titled article like 'Myst Partnership is riven', referring to the Cyan twins (can't quite recall the names) deciding not to work together any more.

Rob and Randy Miller were their names, I think. Its kinda sad, after riven (the brother's last project from what I remember) the Myst series hasn't been the same. I really wasn't that interested in "Exile", I'm hoping the fourth installation "revelations" will be more atuned to the Myst series. I think they have learned their lesson after Uru: Ages Beyond myst failed.

[Atihotep]

Did Uru fail? I didn't keep up with it after it was released. I thought that it might need too big a system to become popular, and the multiplayer thing was a bit odd considering that all the atmosphere from the other games came from the lack of other people.

Atihotep
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Only just working out that the river of blood is actually displayed