Oni: Difference between revisions

{{Hatnote|See [[Oni (myth)]] for the mythical oni, and see [[Oni (folder)]] for info on the installation of Oni on Windows/Mac. For other works named Oni, see [[Oni (no relation)]].}}

{{Hatnote|See [[Credits]] for a complete list of the names behind Oni as well as links to interviews with key members of the Oni team.}}

==Inspiration==

Work on Oni began in 1997 when Bungie decided to found a second studio, Bungie West, with the initial employees being Brent Pease and Michael Evans. The concept for Bungie West's first project was devised by Pease, whose primary influence was the animé film ''[[Ghost in the Shell]]''.<ref>It took one year of conversation before the project started ([http://oni.bungie.org/special/part1/brent.html Bungie.org, "Interview with Brent Pease", 1999]). Also see [http://web.archive.org/web/20010302193919/http://www.insidemacgames.com/previews/99/oni/oni2.shtml Inside Mac Games, "Sneak Preview: Oni", 1999] where Michael Evans gets the credit for taking Pease to see the movie.</ref> Pease and Evans had been programmers at Apple working on game-related technology, and their first step was to begin programming Oni's engine while gradually hiring employees to produce concept art and game content. "Oni" was meant to be a development code name that referenced the game's inspiration – Pease considered "oni"'s meaning to be "ghost".<ref>The meaning of "oni" is usually given by those familiar with Japanese mythology as either "demon" or "ogre". Pease explained the origin of the code name [http://oni.bungie.org/special/part1/brent.html here], and seemed to still think the word meant "ghost"; however, Hardy LeBel, the writer of the final story, indicated [http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=19851 here] and [http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=18292 here] that he understood "oni" to mean "demon" and had written the final story with that in mind (the script itself uses the word "monster", as explored [[Oni (myth)#Monsters|here]]).</ref><ref>At one time during development, the name "Mnemonic Shadow" was considered according to the [https://marathon.bungie.org/story/newjan-feb01.html Marathon Story Page].</ref> The characters [[Konoko]] and [[Griffin|Commander Griffin]] of the Technology Crimes Task Force are analogous to [[wp:Motoko Kusanagi|Motoko Kusanagi]] and [[wp:List of Ghost in the Shell characters#Chief Daisuke Aramaki|Chief Aramaki]] of Section 9 in ''Ghost in the Shell''. Early development presented Konoko as a [[wp:Cyborg|cyborg]], furthering her resemblance to Motoko.

''Further reading:'' [[Oni/Early Story|Early story]], [[Oni/Positioning|Positioning statement]], [[:Category:Concept art|Concept art]].

After E3 1999, Oni received the Game Critics Award for "Best Action/Adventure Game".<ref>[[wp:Game Critics Awards#Best Action/Adventure Game|Wikipedia, "Game Critics Awards"]].</ref> This award is given to games exhibited at that year's E3, which are usually still in development and expected to release soon.

''Further reading:'' [[Trailers]], [[History of the Oni community]], [http://oni.bungie.org/special/ Oni Central interview with Bungie West], [http://web.archive.org/web/19990824063223/http://avault.com/previews/preview_temp.asp?game=oni&page=1 Adrenaline Vault interview with Doug Zartman].

==Troubles==

However, unbeknownst to the public, development of Oni was troubled from the start. The team was young and inexperienced, and development suffered from a lack of direction. A great deal of code had been written and assets created without producing a story that was playable from start to finish. Transferring data from the professional software used for level modeling and animation into Oni wasn't even possible until the very end of 1997.<ref>"After almost a year all they had were some stick figures walking in a box; hardly a killer demo, much less a new frontier in gaming. […] Eventually, Brent had a 'eureka' - just before New Year's Eve 1998, he had a breakthrough. He was able to match the power of these professional tools with their new engine." [http://web.archive.org/web/20010302193919/http://www.insidemacgames.com/previews/99/oni/oni2.shtml Inside Mac Games, "Sneak Preview: Oni", 1999].</ref> By mid-1999 it became clear to management back in Chicago that the game was not going to be ready by year-end, so Hardy LeBel was added to the team with the goal of bringing focus to the development efforts and producing a shippable product.

In June of 2000, it was announced that Bungie had been acquired by Microsoft. 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 company behind the upcoming Xbox console had taken the most popular game developer from the Mac world and would be incorporating them into their office complex. The effect of the acquisition on Oni's development was dire: it meant that Bungie West needed to finish their work as soon as possible and join the rest of Bungie in Redmond, Washington.

==Completion==

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 Oni Central Forum, "New news groups?", Aug. 28, 2000].</ref> during which leaked beta builds of the game surfaced on the Internet.<ref>[http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=6634 Oni Central Forum, "Leakage?", Nov. 27, 2000].</ref><ref>[https://groups.google.com/g/alt.games.tombraider/c/vB9G_SbOrmU/m/i6D6zJQvNngJ Usenet alt.games.tombraider thread, "ok wtf!", Nov. 5, 2000].</ref> As Bungie West reached the end of development, Oni's publisher, Take-Two Interactive, granted them an extra month to polish the game, even though it would mean missing the holiday season.<!--No official citation for this because it's in the private full interview video with Hardy, but see 33:48 in that video.--> This final period of asset development apparently spanned October 2000, during which time the training level was added.<ref>[http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=5646 Oni Central Forum, "Re: is the "new' movie really the old trailer", Oct. 30, 2000]. Also, a [[wikt:gold master|GM]] candidate produced on Oct. 30, 2000 already contained the training level. The timestamp on the Windows retail game data is Nov. 3, 2000, so all assets were done by that point.</ref>

As Oni finally neared completion, Bungie resumed their advertising, now partnered with Take-Two, who were in the process of taking over the Oni [[wp:Intellectual property|IP]] as Bungie prepared to join Microsoft (see {{SectionLink||Buyout}} below). Promotional artwork was produced by Lorraine McLees 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 PlayStation 2 version of the game.

==Release==

Oni was translated into other languages: Russian, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese.<ref>[http://oni.bungie.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2102 Oni Central Forum, "What language is your copy of Oni in?", Sep. 2011].</ref> These localizations included re-dubbed dialogue except for the Chinese localization which only translated the in-game text. The localizations were critical to building Oni's fan base, much of which is outside of primarily-English-speaking countries. Additional distributions of the game such as [[:Image:Windows (pt-BR) box back.jpg|Brazilian Portuguese]] and [[Slovak game manual|Slovak]] only translated the manual and did not change any of the data on the game disc. The European-language releases for Mac and PlayStation 2 were delayed until March 2001. The Japanese releases for Windows and Mac didn't come out until the fall of 2001.

Upon Oni's release, many felt cheated because the game did not deliver on all of its promises (a not-uncommon issue in game development). The most notable shortcoming was the absence of LAN multiplayer, which had been featured in playable demos at expo booths in 1999 and 2000.

Finally, Bungie did not hold to their usual practice of releasing level-building tools for their games, since professional and costly software was used to produce Oni's levels: