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The Indie Scene | Issue 1: Crossbeam Studios Entertainment

on 27.02.2006 at 04:00 User Icon Posted by Mike Mason (Mason)
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Issue 1 :: Monday 27th February 2006


Nintendo claims that all developers, big and small, will be able to develop for its next generation console, code-named Revolution. Despite this promise, though, the process of getting a game out isn't quite as simple for the smaller, independent developers as we might like. 'The Indie Scene' aims to spread the word about independently developed games and help out the people behind them, who can be just as passionate about making games as the big guys, if not more so.


Crossbeam Studios Entertainment :: Orb








The first company that I'll be digging up from beneath the overgrowth that is the ever-expanding mainstream gaming scene may be familiar to a few of our readers, judging by the response to our recent news story. You may also remember our exclusive interview - that's right, our first visitor to 'The Indie Scene' is none other than Crossbeam Studios Entertainment.





Crossbeam are based in Arlington Heights, Illinois, USA, and have a total staff count of just 17; they are, however, on the look out for more help to ease the pressure caused by their own, huge ambition, so if you think you're good enough or want to know what you could do to help, you may want to visit their website and give them a bell. Rather than settling for developing arguably more realistic, smaller games, Crossbeam instead have chosen to aim high and set their benchmarks more akin to the standards of Eternal Darkness and Legend Of Zelda rather than the likes of smaller, simpler Gameboy or PC games you might find other such smaller developers making.



The 'Crossbeam dream' began back in 1999, when a group of friends in high school got together and decided that they wanted to create PC games. Each member gained experience in their respective chosen fields with time and as a whole they set upon their mission of creating games, picking up new recruits along the way to reach the 17 person team of the present day. Together, they have a combined experience of around 45 years - perhaps not difficult when one member of your team is 54 years young.



After beginning development for PC after years of design, Crossbeams' collective imagination was captured by a certain new console codenamed Revolution by a certain games company beginning with 'N'. Much of the team already had a fondness of Nintendo, and so it didn't take much persuasion for all attention to turn towards the console. Unfortunately, they have yet to obtain a software development kit for the mysterious system, and so they are concentrating their efforts on creating demonstrations of their projects on PC to show to publishers and developers in the future (possibly at E3 2006), in a bid to impress them and woo Nintendo into granting them official Revolution developer status.




Although they have vampire game 'Darkness' in design stages and the just-revealed futuristic action/adventure 'Thorn' in a similar state, Orb is Crossbeam Studios' baby. Twelve of the seventeen team members are concentrating on Orb primarily in their efforts to get the game onto Nintendo Revolution. Orb is scheduled to be of the action/adventure genre (utilising a battle system similar to Zelda), but will feature limited RPG elements, such as levelling up weaponary (15 different stages per weapon) and magical powers; you'll find no experience points or reams of statistics, RPG fans may be disappointed to learn, but a suitably epic story will be making an appearance.





The story originated from a series of dreams that Crossbeam founder Greg Szemiot had. Inspired and moved by these images in his sleep, Greg put pen to paper and came up with a draft of a storyline. When he and his friends decided to make a game, the story Greg had written was the natural choice for it, and as Orb came along and more people had their hand in its progress, it found itself in its current story, one of a bitter war led against a nation by a brutal army, the Kulon. The nation Delphire eventually falls to Kulon, as the latter tears through the former's people, striking down men, women and children indiscriminately, and ultimately one particularly fierce Kulon warrior crowns himself as ruler of the land. Continuing his arrogant power trip, the self-imposed king decides that he'd rather like to control everybody's lives and souls in every way possible, including (but not limited to) their beliefs; ah, religion, the most powerful weapon known to man. There is a problem with this though: in the world of Orb there are Imanti, 'Guardians of Faith', who, well, guard the faith. Our glorious leader decides that one such way to control belief would be to go straight to the source and kidnap an Imanti, which he happily does. However, he doesn't reckon upon this particular Imanti having trainees underneath him, who aren't too thrilled that their mentor has been whipped from beneath their noses. They set off after him but, as with any great tale, they may be letting themselves in for far more than they bargained for...It is this storyline, full of death and destruction, that is making Orb teeter between being rated as a teen or mature game.



The quality of the story and the talent behind it can be seen when some events during Orb's lifetime are uncovered. The storyline, much of which is kept securely underwraps at Crossbeam, with the above being perhaps but a brief snippet, helped Orb to win a 'best in class' award at university against 120 other hopeful projects due to quality dialogue and characters, and perhaps one of the best compliments a team could hope for was bestowed upon the game
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