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Oni: Difference between revisions
added new section for material about pre-release promotion, betas, and demos, to make the timeline a bit clearer; added more info about demos
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''Further reading:'' [[Oni/Early Story|Early Story]], [[Oni/Positioning|Positioning Statement]]. | ''Further reading:'' [[Oni/Early Story|Early Story]], [[Oni/Positioning|Positioning Statement]]. | ||
== | ==Initial hype== | ||
[[Image:1998 trailer opening.jpg|250px|link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxJ8vp3vTW0|thumb|Click the image to watch the unofficial trailer that Bungie West released in 1998.]] | [[Image:1998 trailer opening.jpg|250px|link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxJ8vp3vTW0|thumb|Click the image to watch the unofficial trailer that Bungie West released in 1998.]] | ||
[[Image:1999 trailer opening.jpg|250px|link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLZ2hJZvrmo|thumb|Click the image to watch the official trailer from 1999.]] | [[Image:1999 trailer opening.jpg|250px|link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLZ2hJZvrmo|thumb|Click the image to watch the official trailer from 1999.]] | ||
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Due to the delays in Oni's development discussed below, Bungie suspended the advertising of the game for a time, so as not to expend their budget before the game was even released.<ref name=advert /> In the meantime, the game under development at Bungie's HQ in Chicago, which was previously known only by its code name "Blam", came to be known as Halo and slowly drew attention away from the oft-delayed Oni as images and trailers for it began to appear. | Due to the delays in Oni's development discussed below, Bungie suspended the advertising of the game for a time, so as not to expend their budget before the game was even released.<ref name=advert /> In the meantime, the game under development at Bungie's HQ in Chicago, which was previously known only by its code name "Blam", came to be known as Halo and slowly drew attention away from the oft-delayed Oni as images and trailers for it began to appear. | ||
''Further reading:'' [[Trailers]], [[History of the Oni community]], [http://oni.bungie.org/special/ Oni Central interview with Bungie West], [http://web.archive.org/web/200012061625/http://www.insidemacgames.com/features/00/dunn/ IMG interview with Dave Dunn], [http://web.archive.org/web/19990824063223/http://avault.com/previews/preview_temp.asp?game=oni&page=1 Adrenaline Vault interview with Doug Zartman]. | |||
''Further reading:'' [[Trailers]], [[History of the Oni community]], [http://oni.bungie.org/special/ Oni Central interview with Bungie West], [http://web.archive.org/web/200012061625/http://www.insidemacgames.com/features/00/dunn/ IMG interview with Dave Dunn], [http://web.archive.org/web/19990824063223/http://avault.com/previews/preview_temp.asp?game=oni&page=1 Adrenaline Vault interview with Doug Zartman | |||
==Development troubles== | ==Development troubles== | ||
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This caused an upset among Bungie's fan base, which mostly consisted of Mac users. They considered Microsoft to be Apple's nemesis, and now the publisher of Windows had taken the most popular game developer from the Mac world and would be incorporating them into their headquarters in Redmond, Washington. However, the effect this had on Oni's development was dire; it meant that Bungie West needed to finish their work as soon as possible in order to join the rest of Bungie in Redmond. Suddenly a hard deadline had been put in place, somewhere before the end of 2000. In order to meet this deadline, the Bungie West staff worked massive overtime for several months. According to Hardy LeBel, "It was as bad a crunch as there has ever been in the video games industry."<ref>See CryMor Gaming's documentary [https://youtu.be/jbrPu15jjPs?t=960 Demon: The Untold Story of Bungie’s Forgotten Franchise], 16 minute mark.</ref> It was only due to this final push that a playable and enjoyable game was forged out of over two years of prior work. | This caused an upset among Bungie's fan base, which mostly consisted of Mac users. They considered Microsoft to be Apple's nemesis, and now the publisher of Windows had taken the most popular game developer from the Mac world and would be incorporating them into their headquarters in Redmond, Washington. However, the effect this had on Oni's development was dire; it meant that Bungie West needed to finish their work as soon as possible in order to join the rest of Bungie in Redmond. Suddenly a hard deadline had been put in place, somewhere before the end of 2000. In order to meet this deadline, the Bungie West staff worked massive overtime for several months. According to Hardy LeBel, "It was as bad a crunch as there has ever been in the video games industry."<ref>See CryMor Gaming's documentary [https://youtu.be/jbrPu15jjPs?t=960 Demon: The Untold Story of Bungie’s Forgotten Franchise], 16 minute mark.</ref> It was only due to this final push that a playable and enjoyable game was forged out of over two years of prior work. | ||
==Nearing release== | |||
[[Image:MG_UK_cover.jpg|thumb|250px|A preview of Oni from 1999. There was seemingly much more coverage of Oni in 1999 than when it released.]] | |||
Oni went through a short period of beta testing, starting just before September 2000,<ref>[http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=4556 OCF thread, "New news groups?"].</ref> during which a leaked beta build of the game surfaced on the Internet. Development of the Windows version was finished in November<ref>[http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=6377 OCF thread, "ONI gone GOLD", Nov. 20, 2000].</ref> and the Mac version in December of 2000.<ref name=MacGM>See [http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=7653 OCF thread, "Re: It's coming... soon", Dec. 18, 2000], which showed that the Mac demo would not be ready until the Mac version of the game reached Gold Master status, and [http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=8412 OCF thread, "MAC DEMO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!", Dec. 22, 2000], celebrating the release of the demo.</ref> The Windows demo, released in mid-December,<ref>[http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=7479 OCF thread, "ONI DEMO!", Dec. 17, 2000].</ref> contained Chapters [[CHAPTER_01_._TRIAL_RUN|1]] and [[CHAPTER 04 . TIGER BY THE TAIL|4]]. A later demo was released with levels 1 and [[CHAPTER 02 . ENGINES OF EVIL|2]] instead. The Mac demo, released a few days after the original Windows demo,<ref name=MacGM /> only ever contained levels 1 and 4. | |||
As Oni finally neared completion, Bungie resumed their advertising, now partnered with Take-Two, who were in the process of taking over the Oni [[wikipedia:Intellectual_property|IP]] as Bungie prepared to join Microsoft (see "Change of ownership" section below). Promotional artwork was produced by Lorraine Reyes as well as artists commissioned by Take-Two, and a four-issue comic book was produced under Take-Two's supervision and published by Dark Horse. Take-Two's PR efforts, however, seem to have been focused mainly on the PS2 version of the game. | |||
''Further reading:'' [[Mac betas|Leaked beta]], [[Dark_Horse_comics|Dark Horse's ''Oni'' comic]], [[:Category:Promotional art|Promotional art]]. | |||
==Release== | ==Release== | ||
Oni was finally released, much later than originally expected, at the end of January 2001<ref>[http://oni.bungie.org/newsarchives/2001/jan01.html Oni Central News Archive, Jan. 2001].</ref> (spring 2001 in Europe). Oni was translated into other languages, including Russian, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese.<ref>[http://oni.bungie.org/community/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2102 OCF thread, "What language is your copy of Oni in?". These localizations generally included re-dubbing the game's dialogue in that language, except for Chinese].</ref> These localizations were critical to building Oni's fan base, which today is largely based outside of primarily-English-speaking countries. | |||
Oni's storyline is fairly straightforward, although it has been called "understated". Because the story takes place over about a week and a half in the game's timeline, there is little room to develop the characters or setting, although large amounts of additional information are to be found in consoles scattered throughout the levels. | Oni's storyline is fairly straightforward, although it has been called "understated". Because the story takes place over about a week and a half in the game's timeline, there is little room to develop the characters or setting, although large amounts of additional information are to be found in consoles scattered throughout the levels. | ||
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Oni uses a custom graphics engine that was optimized for handling levels with much more open space than games typically had at the time, and the levels were designed by actual architects, giving them a more realistic look than many game worlds of the time. The actual texturing in the game is minimalist, a style chosen to try to match the look of [[Anime and manga|animé]]. | Oni uses a custom graphics engine that was optimized for handling levels with much more open space than games typically had at the time, and the levels were designed by actual architects, giving them a more realistic look than many game worlds of the time. The actual texturing in the game is minimalist, a style chosen to try to match the look of [[Anime and manga|animé]]. | ||
''Further reading:'' | ''Further reading:'' [[Gameplay]], [[Chapters|Plot summary]], [[Quotes/Consoles|Console text collection]]. | ||
==Reception== | ==Reception== | ||