Later on, as time and schedules and resources became cramped on both projects, “‘Iron Man’ would inherit resources from ‘Golden Axe’ which is why ‘Golden Axe’ got pushed out even further,” says Bretz. Īlthough struggling with “Golden Axe,” Sega also chose Secret Level to work on an adaptation of Marvel’s first Universe film, “Iron Man,” due before the film’s release in 2008. I’ve always believed that it was to secure the team was around to complete ‘Golden Axe’ and beyond that, a long-term play,” Sherlock wrote in an email response to Variety. “A number of people like myself were always a little baffled by it. Jez Sherlock, director of technology at Sega, didn’t understand the acquisition. Unphased, in the summer of 2006, Sega acquired Secret Level for $15 million bringing them in as an internal development studio, renamed Sega Studios San Franciso. It was going to be technically fine, but you weren’t going to be able to play a game,” says Bretz. In spring of 2006, with the first playable demo due into Sega, it was clear “Beast Rider” wasn’t ready to be shown. From the design side, this meant inadequate tools and playing catch up. “Beast Rider’s” development was based on their new engine, designed by Secret Level from the ground up. According to Bretz, excitement ran through the studio, but by the early parts of 2006, the design team began to fall behind. Sega liked that,” says Bretz.īy the end of 2005, Secret Level presented Sega with an engine test, the first milestone of the production. We thought we could take that in an interesting direction from a mounted combat game. “We had been playing games at the time like ‘Shadow of the Colossus’ where they were starting to introduce riding mechanics. “Grand Theft Auto’s” carjacking, but with fire-breathing monsters. The plan for “Beast Rider” was to turn them into fighting creatures and transportation. Likewise, enemies used them, leading to a rush for who could knock the other off for control. Each game featured a suite of lizards, dragons, insects, or more for the lead characters to ride. Key to Secret Level was their focus on technology, boasting an internal rendering engine capable of displaying vast landscapes, exactly what an open world adventure game needed.īeasts were central to “Golden Axe” lore. The earliest pitches for “Golden Axe” landed at Sega at the beginning of 2005. Then we shipped it and were like, ‘oh dammit,’” says art director Matthew Butler. They thought that they had a technologically sound team with a lot of vision and forward thinking in Secret Level.” They wanted to see if a western development team could achieve that similar success. “The heads of Sega at the time were very interested in trying to tap into the success of ‘Grand Theft Auto’ in western markets. “The real heart of the game originally, if you consider games like ‘Conan Exiles’ today and even ‘Rage,’ those kinds of games, those pseudo open worlds aspects of those, was really at the heart and scope of the game that was originally pitched to Sega,” says producer Michael Boccieri to Variety. The focus would turn to rideable beasts, with heroes scouring the land, solving puzzles, and fighting Death Adder’s minions while on the hunt for a mythical Golden Axe. The pitch was for an open world fantasy adventure. … We were looking for something everyone could get behind, a real change in direction in terms of creativity.” “We spent a fair amount of time and money, more than we previously had on other pitches. “We ended up going all out on pitch materials,” says Christopher Bretz, one of the principals at Secret Level. Not discouraged and seeking to showcase their creative side, Secret Level pushed to take on the “Beast Rider” project. Prior to “ Golden Axe: Beast Rider,” Secret Level attempted to port “America’s Army” from Xbox to PlayStation 2 for publisher Ubisoft but struggled. Their specialty wasn’t creating, rather getting games up and running on different platforms. Their resume showed no major projects, just technology. For Secret Level, traditionally a 20 to 30 employee studio focused on porting games like “Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter,” this was new.
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