A little over Three years ago Marweas and I hatched a devious plan to bring the Tribes Franchise back from the dead. With the help of the community and Garage games we patched T2; we finished Tribes: Aerial Assault which had languished under eight previous producers; and we kicked off Tribes: Vengeance.
A little time line for you:
- November 2001 - Marweas announces our intention to make a T2 patch. The negotiations mentioned were of course with Garage Games.
- January, 2002 - Irrational signs on to make what was then called Tribes: Story.
- December, 2002 - Marweas poetically informs TW that the game has made it past the last green-light hurdle and is in full production (his announcement is several months late).
- February, 2004 - Marweas is laid off. 692 posts of 99.9% pure love. Time to meet the new guy.
- April, 2004 - Luc Vanhal leaves VUG. It's only worth 59 replies on TW.
- April, 2004 - VGB Scr8pin - 121 posts. Scr8pin > Luc Vanhal.
- June, 2004 - Vivendi announces more layoffs and the closure of the Sierra studios (where I work). My first meaningful post (few and far between) comes on page 5 (#84).
- August, 2004 - Open beta released. Many people enjoy it. Pocketgamer develops a fixation on hopping vs sliding.
- Tomorrow, Friday September 17 - Just a few short weeks before Tribes will hit the shelves my time has run out. I was given a 90 day extension to stay on at Sierra (the building has been nearly empty for a month now) and finish Tribes. We're now in a great position, ready to ship, and I'm confident that the team in Australia will do a fantastic job finishing the game.
It's been a pleasure. I'm tired. I need a rest. As a member of Sierra and the Tribes Development team, goodbye.
thrax