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Oni: Difference between revisions
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--> The end of 1999 saw the departure of one of the level designers, and then Brent Pease himself (with his Project Lead title being passed to Michael Evans). | --> The end of 1999 saw the departure of one of the level designers, and then Brent Pease himself (with his Project Lead title being passed to Michael Evans). | ||
Evans, LeBel and the team began honing the gameplay, shaping the final story, and figuring out what features or content would have to be dropped in order to ship the game before it was too late; Bungie was secretly suffering from serious money problems (see {{SectionLink||Buyout}} below). In May of 2000, it was announced that multiplayer was being removed from the game due to latency issues and lack of time to create suitable arena levels for network play. The mecha enemy known as the Iron Demon and an additional level of the game were also cut due to lack of time to complete them. | Evans, LeBel and the team began honing the gameplay, shaping the final story, and figuring out what features or content would have to be dropped in order to ship the game before it was too late; Bungie was secretly suffering from serious money problems (see {{SectionLink||Buyout}} below). In May of 2000, it was announced that multiplayer was being removed from the game due to latency issues and lack of time to create suitable arena levels for network play. The mecha enemy known as the Iron Demon and an additional level of the game were also cut due to lack of time to complete them. In order to address performance issues, graphical niceties such as lightmaps and realtime shadows were replaced with simpler implementations and polygonal detail was removed from levels. | ||
In June of 2000, it was announced publicly 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 in order to bring Halo to the Xbox. The effect of the acquisition on Oni's development was dire: it meant that Bungie West had a few short months to finish their work and join the rest of Bungie in Redmond, Washington. | In June of 2000, it was announced publicly 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 in order to bring Halo to the Xbox. The effect of the acquisition on Oni's development was dire: it meant that Bungie West had a few short months to finish their work and join the rest of Bungie in Redmond, Washington. | ||
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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. | ||
The developers achieved a unique blend of gunplay and hand-to-hand combat, with fluid controls and a camera that ensures that the action is always visible. | The developers achieved a unique blend of gunplay and hand-to-hand combat, with fluid controls and a camera that ensures that the action is always visible. The guns are a mix of ordinary ballistic and unconventional sci-fi weaponry, and weapon handling places some emphasis on realism: rifles cannot be holstered, Konoko only carries one weapon at a time, and a gun's ammo is tracked persistently whether it is being handled by the player or an enemy. Weapons and melee have some aim assist to compensate for the third-person camera making precise aim difficult. The melee component of the game is particularly complex, employing over 2000 animations, and is frequently the main element that fans point to when praising the uniqueness of the gameplay. | ||
Oni uses an in-house graphics engine developed for this game; it was optimized for handling levels with larger indoor environments than typical games of the time | Oni uses an in-house graphics engine developed from scratch for this game, and never used for any other game; it was optimized for handling levels with larger indoor environments than typical games of the time. The texturing in the game is minimalist, a style chosen to try to match the look of [[animé]]. The graphics are limited to basic texture mapping, pseudo-reflection mapping and pseudo-lightmaps (achieved through vertex shading). | ||
''Further reading:'' [[Localizations]], [[Releases]], [[Timeline of development]], [[Gameplay]], [[Chapters|Plot summary]], [[Quotes/Consoles|Console text]]. | ''Further reading:'' [[Localizations]], [[Releases]], [[Timeline of development]], [[Gameplay]], [[Chapters|Plot summary]], [[Quotes/Consoles|Console text]]. | ||
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Since Oni's release, the fan community has been working on mods and writing gameplay and modding tools for the game. Gradually the modding abilities of the community have extended to nearly every aspect of the game. The game applications for Windows and macOS are also maintained and improved through patches. Various fan projects have taken on the subject of an "Oni 2" storyline. | Since Oni's release, the fan community has been working on mods and writing gameplay and modding tools for the game. Gradually the modding abilities of the community have extended to nearly every aspect of the game. The game applications for Windows and macOS are also maintained and improved through patches. Various fan projects have taken on the subject of an "Oni 2" storyline. | ||
''Further reading:'' [[History of Oni modding]], [[ | ''Further reading:'' [[History of Oni modding]], [[Introduction to modding]], [[Anniversary Edition]], [[:Category:Gameplay tools|Gameplay tools]], [[:Category:Patches|Engine patches]], [[Oni 2|Oni 2 (fan works)]]. | ||
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