To go work on Mediocre Adventure Games?

Seems like a huge step down. Not calling gloom and doom, but man over the past few years they've lost a lot of good people.

- No text -

Assume Occam's Razor is true, it's probably not that complicated — maybe there's more money, maybe they guarantee a better work/life balance, maybe it's an overall promotion with greater creative control? All possibilities.

Rubin leaves Bungie less than a month before Destiny's release date, September 9, but it's not likely a major concern for the project, as writing work is handled early in the development process. Plus, it sounds like Bungie already has story details locked down for Destiny's DLC.

Says it right there, he's probably put his contribution to bed already.

Prior to joining Bungie in March 2012 to work on Destiny, Rubin spent one year each at Visceral Games and Capcom where he wrote for unannounced projects.

Looks like that's the nature of the projects he undertakes. Create and move on.

Much like he says, if I was a writer who LOVED writing, Telltale games would be pretty tempting. Especially coming from the first person genre. Telling the story "between bullets" is awesome, and Bungie does a great job, but being able to tell a much more in-depth story is pretty enticing.

There's the pure challenge too. I mean it's Game of Thrones he'll be taking on board. Expectations will be massive for the quality of the writing, even though it's a tandem project.

I live in in a city surrounded by 4 major universities and a lot of my friends are fiction writers.

The way the market is right now, it is a much better experience and job description to be a writer for a hit HBO show than for an up-and-coming video game, even if it is Destiny. I know tons of writers who would give up everything to go write for HBO.

- No text -

...but working for Telltale is a great place to pick up where you left off.

Best of luck to him.

To go work on Mediocre Adventure Games?

Seems like a huge step down. Not calling gloom and doom, but man over the past few years they've lost a lot of good people.

I put this article in the news queue yesterday morning, but haven't had time to post it yet.

The quote they used answers your question, I think:

"in the end, Bungie makes games about shooting aliens in the head. And while there’s a true art to 'writing between the bullets' — as Mr. Staten once said — I couldn’t turn down an offer from Telltale, to create games that are entirely about story."

Perhaps this person saw a limit to story innovation and decided he needed more to excite him and add to his resume?

Even as exciting as the prospect of Destiny's story is to us, perhaps this writer is already burned out on it. After all, even with expansions, Destiny will still be Destiny 8-10 years from now.

If I had to guess... It's probably because they didn't like Destiny's PvP component.

;)

The quote they used answers your question, I think:

"in the end, Bungie makes games about shooting aliens in the head. And while there’s a true art to 'writing between the bullets' — as Mr. Staten once said — I couldn’t turn down an offer from Telltale, to create games that are entirely about story."

Admirable I suppose.

However, Telltale doesn't really make great games… and I think if you want something "entirely about story" you may be in the wrong medium.

Not every writing job is equally compelling. I'm sure they're given assignments. It's not like when you're hired as a writer at Bungie you're necessarily charged with writing THE story.

The quote they used answers your question, I think:

"in the end, Bungie makes games about shooting aliens in the head. And while there’s a true art to 'writing between the bullets' — as Mr. Staten once said — I couldn’t turn down an offer from Telltale, to create games that are entirely about story."

Admirable I suppose.

However, Telltale doesn't really make great games… and I think if you want something "entirely about story" you may be in the wrong medium.

Some people do like to try and build things though

- No text -

I dunno man, I tried and started to play Walking Dead, but the hotspots are so poorly programmed I was fighting with the game's interface, so I just gave it up. That's adventure gaming 101.

I dunno man, I tried and started to play Walking Dead, but the hotspots are so poorly programmed I was fighting with the game's interface, so I just gave it up. That's adventure gaming 101.

Seriously? I never once had a problem.

I dunno man, I tried and started to play Walking Dead, but the hotspots are so poorly programmed I was fighting with the game's interface, so I just gave it up. That's adventure gaming 101.

Seriously? I never once had a problem.

First puzzle:

Unlock the cuffs so you can grab the gun.

I get the key, and mouse over the keyhole. Nothing. I struggle, and I die. Repeat. Still can;t get the key in the keyhole. I figure the key is a red herring, and look for something else. Finally, I discover the hotspot is not over the keyhole, but over the chain between the hands. I click the key over the chain, then he puts the key in the keyhole and unlocks the cuffs, never touching the chain.

Talking to characters required me to click on their elbows.

The camera sucks.

Maybe there was a patch or something and this has been fixed, but I already jumped ship.

I loved the Sam & Max games, and Back to the Future was alright, but after Walking Dead I'm a Telltale Deserter :-(

However, Telltale doesn't really make great games… and I think if you want something "entirely about story" you may be in the wrong medium.

And I think your definition of great games is excessively narrow... still, after all these years.

-- Steve's definition, for instance, doesn't exclude Infocom's catalog.

I dunno man, I tried and started to play Walking Dead, but the hotspots are so poorly programmed I was fighting with the game's interface, so I just gave it up. That's adventure gaming 101.

Seriously? I never once had a problem.

First puzzle:

Unlock the cuffs so you can grab the gun.

I get the key, and mouse over the keyhole. Nothing. I struggle, and I die. Repeat. Still can;t get the key in the keyhole. I figure the key is a red herring, and look for something else. Finally, I discover the hotspot is not over the keyhole, but over the chain between the hands. I click the key over the chain, then he puts the key in the keyhole and unlocks the cuffs, never touching the chain.

Talking to characters required me to click on their elbows.

The camera sucks.

Maybe there was a patch or something and this has been fixed, but I already jumped ship.

I loved the Sam & Max games, and Back to the Future was alright, but after Walking Dead I'm a Telltale Deserter :-(

Must have been a PC Master Race issue then. I played it on the 360 and the only problem you've listed that I remember also experiencing was the camera angles being less than stellar at times.

They're technically flawed definitely, but ultimately Season 1 of the TWD was something special.
Rubin is probably getting something that excites him more creatively, probably a bit more ownership in a smaller studio.

Seriously, something changed with Bungie when they signed that deal with Activision.

They're shitty games with really good stories. Can't be a good game without good gameplay.

Maybe he would get to do more actual writing at Telltale than working for a shooter developer? Destiny's got backstory out the wazoo, but is probably light on character and story compared to an adventure game.

Maybe he would get to do more actual writing at Telltale than working for a shooter developer? Destiny's got backstory out the wazoo, but is probably light on character and story compared to an adventure game.

I'm thinking maybe this is it. Someone I read was pretty spot on when they said Bungie was great with coming up with lore and backstory, but not so much with narratives. I'd have to kind of agree. We are beyond the days when you can just use terminals.

Maybe he would get to do more actual writing at Telltale than working for a shooter developer? Destiny's got backstory out the wazoo, but is probably light on character and story compared to an adventure game.

I'm thinking maybe this is it. Someone I read was pretty spot on when they said Bungie was great with coming up with lore and backstory, but not so much with narratives. I'd have to kind of agree. We are beyond the days when you can just use terminals.

Unfortunately.

I wouldn't mind some terminals in Destiny.

I'm thinking maybe this is it. Someone I read was pretty spot on when they said Bungie was great with coming up with lore and backstory, but not so much with narratives.

Maybe not with plots. Cohesive narrative structuring (at least within a game) has been Bungie's strength with Halo IMO.

I'd have to kind of agree. We are beyond the days when you can just use terminals.

They're pretty hit-and-miss as a "hidden" side-narrative, occasionally phenomenal, usually dubious. Whether they can work when employed as the primary plot-distributing mechanism is probably more an issue of perception than an actual quality problem, though I agree it's a hard sell.

I still think text terminals worked brilliantly in Marathon, and I first played that less than four years ago.

(Though it's also worth noting that even games heavily based around text terminals can often wind up not actually having that much writing.)

To go work on Mediocre Adventure Games?

Seems like a huge step down. Not calling gloom and doom, but man over the past few years they've lost a lot of good people.

Promotion? Raise? Something different?

When Bungie was 30 people any departure was a big deal, but people still did it back then-- look at Greg K and the rest of the Double Aught guys.

Then look at Certain Affinity.

Bungie is so large now it's a fair bet that people are coming and going every week; we just don't hear about them all.

Seriously, something changed with Bungie when they signed that deal with Activision.

Well, Marty was terminated, he didn't leave, and that looks more and more like it's about preferred shares vesting after Destiny's release, and not about working conditions.

I expect anything O'Donnell is legally able to say about the situation has been said-- there's probably an NDA in force, or else he just doesn't think making further public statements about the situation is wise while litigation is still ongoing.

When Bungie was 30 people any departure was a big deal, but people still did it back then-- look at Greg K and the rest of the Double Aught guys.

Then look at Certain Affinity.

Both of your examples are hilarious, because Double Aught and Certain Affinity never went anywhere or made a splash.

After Infinity, Double Aught folded. Certain Affinity never made anything good. Even high profile departures like Alex led to Wideload giving us one hilariously funny, but average game, and no other good ones before they folded.

It seems like the only person who has left Bungie (that I can think of) and has improved in terms of project output (notwithstanding anybody at 343, Halo 5 could be good) has been Max Dyckhoff who is now at Naughty Dog.

I realize there is a lot more to consider when choosing a career path. Stress, Money, Location, etc. I'd imagine though, that being a part of great projects has at least SOME consideration.

I dunno man, I tried and started to play Walking Dead, but the hotspots are so poorly programmed I was fighting with the game's interface, so I just gave it up. That's adventure gaming 101.

Seriously? I never once had a problem.

First puzzle:

Unlock the cuffs so you can grab the gun.

I get the key, and mouse over the keyhole. Nothing. I struggle, and I die. Repeat. Still can;t get the key in the keyhole. I figure the key is a red herring, and look for something else. Finally, I discover the hotspot is not over the keyhole, but over the chain between the hands. I click the key over the chain, then he puts the key in the keyhole and unlocks the cuffs, never touching the chain.

Talking to characters required me to click on their elbows.

The camera sucks.

Maybe there was a patch or something and this has been fixed, but I already jumped ship.

I loved the Sam & Max games, and Back to the Future was alright, but after Walking Dead I'm a Telltale Deserter :-(

Must have been a PC Master Race issue then. I played it on the 360 and the only problem you've listed that I remember also experiencing was the camera angles being less than stellar at times.

Then you had to deal with the lack of an inverted look option then.

The horror ... the horror.

Then you had to deal with the lack of an inverted look option then.

The horror ... the horror.

Nah, I don't play inverted. I'm specifically thinking of parts where there was a static camera that followed you around the environment. I think the worst was maybe in Episode 2? In the quickie mart or whatever. I remember the camera view being pretty awful in there, but it wasn't anything that absolutely ruined the entire experience for me.

Then you had to deal with the lack of an inverted look option then.

The horror ... the horror.

Nah, I don't play inverted. I'm specifically thinking of parts where there was a static camera that followed you around the environment. I think the worst was maybe in Episode 2? In the quickie mart or whatever. I remember the camera view being pretty awful in there, but it wasn't anything that absolutely ruined the entire experience for me.

I had a similar experience to Cody's trying to play it on a mac, so I didn't get very far. I'm still interested, but there a was a time I'd thought about getting it for the 360. Later I heard about it not having inverted look, which I think is inexcusable at this point. Imagine a game where inverted was the only choice. Could you play it?