|
Following the
collapse of Ion Storm Dallas after four years of
budget-burning disasters, John Romero and Tom Hall seem to
have decided to go for a back to basics approach to game
design. Instead of designing cutting edge PC and next-gen
console titles, they have switched their attentions to
hand-held systems. In particular, the PocketPC. Their first
title is Hyperspace Delivery Boy, which sounds like an attempt
to return to the pair's heyday when they working on classic
shareware games like Commander Keen at id Software. It should
be available by the beginning of November, something of a
departure from the four year development cycles of Daikatana
and Anachronox at Ion Storm!
"Development for the
Pocket PC can be done with a small team in a very limited
amount of time. This is exactly the environment and feel we
were looking for with Monkeystone, and I think it suits John
and Tom perfectly", Romero's girlfriend Stevie Case told
GameSpy in a recent interview. "This way they get to spend
their time actually working on the games rather than managing
a team. Trying to balance the needs of a big company and its
endless list of employees is a big waste of their skills, in
my honest opinion. As things stand, John is doing all of the
programming. I haven't seen him so happy since I first met
him. Tom is doing design work, art and mapping."
At
the moment the company has just five employees, including
former Ensemble CFO Brian Moon, who is handling the business
and management side of things, leaving the Ion Storm escapees
free to concentrate on game design. "We will be ramping up a
bit and doing some hiring, but it will not be excessive",
Stevie revealed. "We are enjoying this small team way too
much! Also, we feel that handhelds are the market to be in
right now."
|
