About Silicon Knights

[Smashchu]

I was reading up on Silicon Knights and found out they were 2nd party a while back.

I wanted to know about them and why Nintendo droped them. Anyone know?

[Nester the Lark]

It's strange, because while SK was a Nintendo second party, its president, Denis Dyack, did nothing but praise Nintendo. He even went so far as to say that SK would NEVER go back to developing the old way. You'd think they were married or something.

So the industry made a collective gasp when it was announced that SK and Nintendo had mutually decided to part ways (shortly after the release of Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes). Dyack basically said that it came down to a difference in direction. SK believed that games would get bigger and more complex, while Nintendo thought games should be simpler and more accessible. Both companies tried to find a middle ground, but they ultimately failed and decided to split up. However, both companies still seem to have a lot of respect for each other.

IGN has a video interview with Dyack about the subject if you want to hear it in his own words.

[Smashchu]

Interesting. I heard alot about the break up but not much else.It seems SK just couldn't take the Revolution.

[Fryguy64]

Yes, I believe it was E3 in 1999 or 2000 when Silicon Knights showed off Too Human and Eternal Darkness. Nintendo brought them on board, and both went from N64 projects to Gamecube projects.

Too Human never surfaced, and Silicon Knights only produced two games on Gamecube (one of which wasn't even published by Nintendo).

If I understand correctly, Silicon Knights is now one of the Microsoft Game Studios, working on Too Human for the 360. So I guess their claim not to return to the old days is working out just fine, just under a different company.

[Wildcat]

Well, I'm not sure if they're under Microsoft forever. I heard that they're doing somehting with Sega, as well, but that was a while ago...could be wrong.

[Flip]

I thought they had just gone third party, but then again, I don't follow Microsoft news that well.

I still need to play Eternal Darkness...

And didn't Dennis Dyack crack a joke once that now that he's finally gotten to work on a Metal Gear Solid game, he'd love to bring back Kid Icarus? Silly Silicon Knights, leaving before you created your ultimate game

[Nester the Lark]

Yeah, I don't think Silicon Knights has any second party relations with Microsoft other than Too Human. And they are also working with Sega on an unannounced project. At least, this is all according to the official website.

Also, I believe Denis Dyack said that Too Human was never really in development for the PS1, N64 or GC. It existed merely as a game design idea. It was only recently that they decided to implement it for the 360.

An alternate version of the break up with Nintendo (and I can't remember exactly where I read this) is that Nintendo was originally working on a very traditional console as a follow up to the Gamecube. But in early 2004, they switched focus to the "Revolution" project, and and that turned off some of the developers. (Recall that Factor 5 also bailed on Nintendo that same week.) Since Nintendo was creating a console that reflected their simpler and more accessible game design mentality, developers that preferred more powerful hi-tech consoles decided to go with the 360 or PS3 instead.

[claudiomp]

Sincerely, the Silicone was excellent to have left the Nintendo. Eternal Darkness is a very bad game, for the love of God. Now, Too Human would be perfect!

[Flip]

Too Human looked to be a great game. Definitely would've sold Gamecubes by the droves if it came out. Oh well :/

[Fryguy64]

coreywoods said:

Also, I believe Denis Dyack said that Too Human was never really in development for the PS1, N64 or GC.

Funny... because they showed a GC demo of it at E3 2001. It might not have been in full development at that time, but the demo was there.

I don't know much about Too Human, it must be admitted. I'm surprised everyone is shouting its praises with hardly any info. I thought Eternal Darkness might have sold the Gamecube in droves, but I was wrong. An excellent game, but a sadly neglected one.

[Nester the Lark]

admin said:

Funny... because they showed a GC demo of it at E3 2001. It might not have been in full development at that time, but the demo was there.

Heh, it always helps if I check my sources before posting, but sometimes I get lazy. Here are a couple of snippets of interviews with Dyack:

www.gamasutra.com/features/20050726/kohler_01.shtml

Gamasutra: This is the third or fourth time you've switched platform on this project.

Dyack : Originally, we were working on it for PSone. When we became a second party for Nintendo, we stopped. We did some earlier prototyping on the GameCube, but we then went full dedication to Eternal Darkness and Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes. When we went our separate ways with Nintendo, we talked to some friends in Microsoft.
. . .
Gamasutra: How close to completion was the PSone game?

Dyack: Approaching alpha. We showed it at one E3. We were getting there. It was a few months away from being ready to release. A lot of the screenshots are from 1998.

www.gamespot.com/gamecube/action/metalgearworkingtitle/news.html?sid=6136690

GS: But Too Human has been in development--off and on--for a very long time, hasn't it? More than 10 years?

Dyack: [Laughs]. Well, it's a long story, but let's say the kernel of the game, the concept, goes back as far as 1994, or even earlier. The short story is that we worked on Legacy of Kain, and then after that, in 1996, we were going to work on Too Human for the PSOne, but then started on Eternal Darkness, originally for the Nintendo 64. It eventually came out for the GameCube, and then we worked on Metal Gear Solid [for GameCube]. So it wasn't really until we spoke with Microsoft about the Xbox 360 platform that we started to actually work on the game, which hasn't been that long.

So I was wrong about the PS1, but it was still never in full-fledged development for N64/GC.