Topic: Tactical Intervention: new game from Counter Strike creator

[idolminds]

Story

I don't really care about the game itself. Looks like Counter-Strike: Source 2 Turbo or something. It uses the Source engine and the gameplay sound much like CS. But its basically his way to add the things he always wanted in CS but without having the entire CS community get their panties in a wad about it. See: the CS Riot Shield.

Anyway, this was the interesting part to me:

After graduating from Simon Fraser University, Minh went to work for Valve on various Counter-Strike related projects, the biggest of which was supposed to be Counter-Strike 2. But things never really got off the ground, the project ended up being put on the shelf, and Counter-Strike 2 died there. But the pressure was there for him to do something big; pressure he didn't care for. So Minh and Valve agreed to part ways on good terms (he still keeps in touch with people there), and he started his own project soon afterwards. Then he promptly fell off the video gaming map. "I moved into my parents' basement since I had to save money," he recalled. "And for two years, I worked as much as I could." Minh moved to Vancouver and continued the new project with a small 5-man team. But things were difficult for him as he now had to come up with an entirely brand new game on his own, from coding to map-making, with no pre-existing game to rely on. Add in the fact that Minh didn't have a regular support staff to help him and the one-year project Minh envisioned died a horrible death.

Someone on Shacknews had a great reply:

no it's more of a 'what the fuck' valve - you took someone that made the most popular online game EVER and sucked the life out of them so badly that they decided to leave a supposed 'dream job' to live in their parents bedroom. I mean seriously how badly did they have to treat him (ie bore the shit out of him) for this to happen.

[Quemaqua]

Heh, interesting story.  And sort of sad.  Guy makes that big a splash in the gaming pool and then goes nowhere for how long now.  That kind of blows.  I mean, I hate CS and all, but it's like the biggest shooter sensation evar.  Shouldn't he have something to show for it by now?

[Cobra951]

I was never involved with a huge game (well, the Everquest engine notwithstanding).  But this story seems too familiar.  Things have not been good for many of the people who actually do the work that ends up becoming games.

[Quemaqua]

Such is the way of any industry with a publisher, really.  All the money and power goes to the corporations while the workers often get little reward.  A few of them make it big, but only a few.  It's especially bad with games because so many hands go into making a single product.  Any major contribution can easily be overshadowed by general design or just lost in the shuffle of other contributions.