Current Events > Goldeneye really should've been a disaster given its dev history >_>

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's fascinating how this game was developed and somehow didn't get fucked up >_>

-It's a licensed movie game, so lol to that

-The dev team was a 10 person team, with 8 of them never even worked on a game before

-They didn't have a N64 dev kit until later on. They used an Onyx computer with a Saturn controller to develop the game first because the specs were similar, hoping the game will kinda just line up when the actual dev kit went to them.

-There was a 3 month period where Nintendo stopped funding the project because they lost faith in it, but Rare didn't want the team to lose morale, so Rare funded the project themselves in secret without telling the dev team

-Multiplayer was put in the game 6 weeks before launch by one guy. He did it as a side project and didn't tell the management at Rare and Nintendo until the game was basically gold. Since it was so late in development and the game was about to ship, they just kept it in because they didn't want to put the work in to take it out.

-It was originally gonna be a sidescroller on the SNES, then a Virtua Cop clone on the N64. Once someone enables walking around during the Virtua Cop phase, they found it to be way more fun and decided to go with that. You can still see inspirations for the Virtua Cop style with the corridor levels like Silo and Train.

-They just made all the levels first, then decided what objectives, enemies, etc. to put in afterwards. Instead of the opposite which is what most dev teams do. Hence why there's so many empty rooms in a lot of levels.

-At the last minute, there was a bug with the Frigate stage that would screw up all the textures if played a certain way. They were so strapped for time that a programmer had to make a fix within a day and didn't even have time to test it before shipping it back. Luckily it worked.

This game is amazing tho. Miracles do happen. Remember that CE!

Pic of the Goldeneye dev team, courtesy of David "Dr. Doak" Doak

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/3/6/AAfWomAAEI-Y.jpg
Yes I said 10 person dev team but there's 11 people in this photo. idk man >_>

Also fun fact: Statue and Cradle were originally gonna be multiplayer maps and even have player and weapon placement coded into the level. But when you force them into a multiplayer state, it lags like a motherfucker. Probably why they scrapped them >_> Apparently they replaced them with Stack and Basement halves from the Library map

Huh, I never knew development was this bad for the game. Glad it all worked out.

Master_Bass posted...

Huh, I never knew development was this bad for the game. Glad it all worked out.

Can you believe that an important milestone of console multiplayer was just built on a whim by 1 dude in the span of few weeks before launch? lol

Always fascinating to read this

I played the shit out of Goldeneye as a kid but never watched the movie from start to finish

How many levels from the original game other than the two bonus levels aren't even in the movie?

Did you get this info from a documentary? I'd like to see it, if so. Interesting nonetheless.

Aridi posted...

Did you get this info from a documentary? I'd like to see it, if so. Interesting nonetheless.

Honestly just various articles and interviews I've read over the years >_>

AlCalavicci posted...

How many levels from the original game other than the two bonus levels aren't even in the movie?

I know Bond never goes to Surface, Bunker, and Frigate in the movie (though they are in scenes with other characters). I don't think Silo, Depot, and Cavern are even in the movie. I believe the rest of the levels are in the movie with Bond though.

NeonTentacles posted...

It's fascinating how this game was developed and somehow didn't get fucked up >_>

-It's a licensed movie game, so lol to that

-The dev team was a 10 person team, with 8 of them never even worked on a game before

-They didn't have a N64 dev kit until later on. They used an Onyx computer with a Saturn controller to develop the game first because the specs were similar, hoping the game will kinda just line up when the actual dev kit went to them.

-There was a 3 month period where Nintendo stopped funding the project because they lost faith in it, but Rare didn't want the team to lose morale, so Rare funded the project themselves in secret without telling the dev team

-Multiplayer was put in the game 6 weeks before launch by one guy. He did it as a side project and didn't tell the management at Rare and Nintendo until the game was basically gold. Since it was so late in development and the game was about to ship, they just kept it in because they didn't want to put the work in to take it out.

-It was originally gonna be a sidescroller on the SNES, then a Virtua Cop clone on the N64. Once someone enables walking around during the Virtua Cop phase, they found it to be way more fun and decided to go with that. You can still see inspirations for the Virtua Cop style with the corridor levels like Silo and Train.

-They just made all the levels first, then decided what objectives, enemies, etc. to put in afterwards. Instead of the opposite which is what most dev teams do. Hence why there's so many empty rooms in a lot of levels.

-At the last minute, there was a bug with the Frigate stage that would screw up all the textures if played a certain way. They were so strapped for time that a programmer had to make a fix within a day and didn't even have time to test it before shipping it back. Luckily it worked.

This game is amazing tho. Miracles do happen. Remember that CE!

Pic of the Goldeneye dev team, courtesy of David "Dr. Doak" Doak

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/3/6/AAfWomAAEI-Y.jpg
Yes I said 10 person dev team but there's 11 people in this photo. idk man >_>

I can SEE a bunch of the NPC guards in Goldeneye. I always loved how they just mapped their own faces on to them.

The guy third from the right is screwing with my head

Kaldrenthebold posted...

I can SEE a bunch of the NPC guards in Goldeneye. I always loved how they just mapped their own faces on to them.

oh shit you're right

@ScarfForLife

It truly was a gem

Huh... I would have never guessed all of that went on behind the scenes. It really is amazing how well the game did, despite all of that.

And the multiplayer was phenomenal, so props to the 1 guy that worked on it in secret. Goldeneye was a big part of my childhood gaming

It was a classic 90s game

If you want a super disasterous game development story look up Sonic Xtreme, Sonic's first 3D Adventure on the Saturn that almost got two people killed working on it due to stress.

Music_Rock_Cat posted...

It was a classic 90s game

If you want a super disasterous game development story look up Sonic Xtreme, Sonic's first 3D Adventure on the Saturn that almost got two people killed working on it due to stress.

Damn, I didnt know Xtreme was that disastrous lol

That dude with the golden gun was creepy as fuck

This is actually amazing

NeonTentacles posted...

Damn, I didnt know Xtreme was that disastrous lol

Yeah it was supposed to the Sega Saturn's flag mascot title but that went to Nights Into Dreams instead. I have abunch of Sonic Xtreme demos at home for the Saturn, the Metal Sonic boss fight is super impressive, everything else is like 5 minute maps that don't do alot.

I think FlashWave had a cool video on the making of it, but I may be thinking of DkC.

Oh thats right, it was in a Rare retrospective.

You forgot to mention that Rare had a Casino level mostly finished and was in the playtesting phase when they decided to completely scrap it in favor of the Silo level. Theres even an unused throwable gadget in the form of the Spy Camera that was meant to be used in the Casino level that you can still force the game to load via the right GameShark codes, just sayin.

Also, contrary to popular belief, Citadel wasnt a cut campaign level, but apparently a multiplayer test map since the Goldeneye community found it in the games code albeit with the pathing for player characters and NPCs somewhat broken, and they even wrote an unofficial patch to fix the pathing so the map can be played as intended. It also has its own set music track as opposed to cycling through all the other multiplayer tracks like the normally playable maps.

That is interesting, didn't Rare already enjoy some prestige given they developed a couple of AA titles on snes (DKC)? I'd have expected they'd have a lot more leniency also from Ninty's side

Music_Rock_Cat posted...

Yeah it was supposed to the Sega Saturn's flag mascot title but that went to Nights Into Dreams instead. I have abunch of Sonic Xtreme demos at home for the Saturn, the Metal Sonic boss fight is super impressive, everything else is like 5 minute maps that don't do alot.

I wish I could have experienced NiGHTs alongside everyone else back then, my introduction into him was Journey of Dreams which I bought only because I recognized him as the weird guy in the Sonic Adventure 1 pinball mini game, his head in Sonic Adventure 2 in Radical Highway and his appearance in Sonic Riders

NeonTentacles posted...

I know Bond never goes to Surface, Bunker, and Frigate in the movie (though they are in scenes with other characters). I don't think Silo, Depot, and Cavern are even in the movie. I believe the rest of the levels are in the movie with Bond though.

Bond DOES go to the Frigate in the movie, although he doesn't get too far before guards stop him. Xenia manages to escape with the helicopter. Everything else looks correct, although I'll note that a few other levels also greatly differ from what happened in the movie. For example: James doesn't fight his way through the train like he does in the video game. He just parks a tank on the tracks and shoots the engine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAJAM1jm2xI

Also, Jungle is really just a fight scene with Xenia Onatopp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of7LHW5cCBQ

Agent_Stroud posted...

You forgot to mention that Rare had a Casino level mostly finished and was in the playtesting phase when they decided to completely scrap it in favor of the Silo level. Theres even an unused throwable gadget in the form of the Spy Camera that was meant to be used in the Casino level that you can still force the game to load via the right GameShark codes, just sayin.

Also, contrary to popular belief, Citadel wasnt a cut campaign level, but apparently a multiplayer test map since the Goldeneye community found it in the games code albeit with the pathing for player characters and NPCs somewhat broken, and they even wrote an unofficial patch to fix the pathing so the map can be played as intended. It also has its own set music track as opposed to cycling through all the other multiplayer tracks like the normally playable maps.

Huh I didnt know about that Casino level. Neat! I did hear about Citadel though I thought everyone knew it was a multiplayer map from the get-go

NeonTentacles posted...

It's fascinating how this game was developed and somehow didn't get fucked up >_>

-It's a licensed movie game, so lol to that

-The dev team was a 10 person team, with 8 of them never even worked on a game before

-They didn't have a N64 dev kit until later on. They used an Onyx computer with a Saturn controller to develop the game first because the specs were similar, hoping the game will kinda just line up when the actual dev kit went to them.

-There was a 3 month period where Nintendo stopped funding the project because they lost faith in it, but Rare didn't want the team to lose morale, so Rare funded the project themselves in secret without telling the dev team

-Multiplayer was put in the game 6 weeks before launch by one guy. He did it as a side project and didn't tell the management at Rare and Nintendo until the game was basically gold. Since it was so late in development and the game was about to ship, they just kept it in because they didn't want to put the work in to take it out.

-It was originally gonna be a sidescroller on the SNES, then a Virtua Cop clone on the N64. Once someone enables walking around during the Virtua Cop phase, they found it to be way more fun and decided to go with that. You can still see inspirations for the Virtua Cop style with the corridor levels like Silo and Train.

-They just made all the levels first, then decided what objectives, enemies, etc. to put in afterwards. Instead of the opposite which is what most dev teams do. Hence why there's so many empty rooms in a lot of levels.

-At the last minute, there was a bug with the Frigate stage that would screw up all the textures if played a certain way. They were so strapped for time that a programmer had to make a fix within a day and didn't even have time to test it before shipping it back. Luckily it worked.

This game is amazing tho. Miracles do happen. Remember that CE!

Pic of the Goldeneye dev team, courtesy of David "Dr. Doak" Doak

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/3/6/AAfWomAAEI-Y.jpg
Yes I said 10 person dev team but there's 11 people in this photo. idk man >_>

that is fascinating. Where did you read all this?

also another tidbit: you were supposed to be able to upload a texture of your face to the game using the game boy camera and put it in the enemies, but then one of the first school shootings happened and they decided to take the feature off. Someone made it work IIRC with some hacking

kuwab0 posted...

The guy third from the right is screwing with my head

Definitely did a double-take. Is he kneeling? I don't know

the_pika posted...

that is fascinating. Where did you read all this?

also another tidbit: you were supposed to be able to upload a texture of your face to the game using the game boy camera and put it in the enemies, but then one of the first school shootings happened and they decided to take the feature off. Someone made it work IIRC with some hacking

I just read all these through various interviews and articles throughout the years. I'm sure there's compilations out there

That photo mode was in Perfect Dark, not Goldeneye. It was a mode called Perfect Head lol. But yeah they were afraid that shooting your friends would be a bad look and scrapped it >_>

Guy in black obviously designed and programmed oddjob

NeonTentacles posted...

I just read all these through various interviews and articles throughout the years. I'm sure there's compilations out there

That photo mode was in Perfect Dark, not Goldeneye. It was a mode called Perfect Head lol. But yeah they were afraid that shooting your friends would be a bad look and scrapped it >_>

My bad lol.

I have seen pics of that working - it was neat, if a bit creepy because of the face resolution

To the first point, a licensed game being good in the 90s isn't that abnormal. The 90s were chock-full of great licensed games that are looked upon pretty fondly.

https://youtu.be/ZhCKs7DDePM

Suolevram posted...

Definitely did a double-take. Is he kneeling? I don't know

Someone stole his knees.

burns112233 posted...

https://youtu.be/ZhCKs7DDePM

Never seen that but yeah it's pretty interesting. lmao @ them trying to implement reloading by taking the rumble pak in and out

codey posted...

To the first point, a licensed game being good in the 90s isn't that abnormal. The 90s were chock-full of great licensed games that are looked upon pretty fondly.

While it existed tons of good licensed games, it also existed tons of bad ones.
And speaking about movie licensed games, it feels like it exist more bad ones than good ones.

NeonTentacles posted...

I just read all these through various interviews and articles throughout the years. I'm sure there's compilations out there

That photo mode was in Perfect Dark, not Goldeneye. It was a mode called Perfect Head lol. But yeah they were afraid that shooting your friends would be a bad look and scrapped it >_>

Funny thing is that when Microsoft released the XBLA version of Perfect Dark, there was an interview with one of the development staff at 4J Studios about why they didnt bring back Perfect Head given how the Kinect wouldve made it so much more accessible to the general public than the original Game Boy Camera and whatever the heck else that Rare required players to rig together for it to have worked on the N64, and the dude replied with both a valid concern about possible bullying online as well as a funny remark about not particularly wanting to see somebodys private parts running around in a multiplayer match.

Yeah I could see someone just posting their dick and running around lmao. That would've been hilarious

Lmao that's a funny visual. And at least their dev team is actually aware of how many trolls there are online.

NeonTentacles posted...

Yeah I could see someone just posting their dick and running around lmao. That would've been hilarious

could we even tell its a dick? Itd be a flat picture, no volume, flattened over a face shape, and no flop

Maybe the dev tried it and confirmed you could tell it's a dick

Don't forget that Shigeru Miyamoto wanted an epilogue showing Bond visiting his victims in the hospital to show that nobody actually died. That's the reason the game is framed like a movie with opening and ending cast lists and an opening screen representing the British censorship board disclaimer at the start of movies. It's to show that they are all actors and aren't really dying a la Super Mario Bros. 3.

Imagine having a shooting game where nobody is allowed to die. <_<

https://twitter.com/drdoak/status/1612231672434495490?s=20&t=-mN1uVj0OXrKMkUJ8FS7yA

^lolwut

He never even played it. He talks about shooting his foot which isnt a thing in Goldeneye lol

https://youtu.be/OAKltJztaf8

bump

I was surprised to hear it started as a on rails shooter. It's a really interesting story. Did anyone mention the Wrestling with Gaming documentary? That was really well done.

Scrolled up real fast and yeah at #34 it came up.

NeonTentacles posted...

He never even played it. He talks about shooting his foot which isnt a thing in Goldeneye lol

While I'm sure it was just a joke meant to describe how bad he is at games, I can also imagine him killing himself with the remote mines in the facility air duct.

Kim_Seong-a posted...

While I'm sure it was just a joke meant to describe how bad he is at games, I can also imagine him killing himself with the remote mines in the facility air duct.

Or sticking a plastique to the wall in Silo only to accidentally set it off by a wayward gunshot and fail the mission in a spectacular fashion.