RTS Command & Conquer Remastered Collection from Petroglyph

[Space Satan]

KANE'S PASSIVE AGRESSIVENESS!

Spoiler

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Yay, more remakes.

Can't wait for the Red Alert remake too. Current Year Tranny Pansexual Obese Tanya of Colour dispensing social justice to the ebul nazi Soviet Putin mysogynyst Twitterbots.

And of course the entire game being a console shooter with regenerating health and achievements, which it couldn't originally be due to the technology of the time.

What about a Generals remake, should get the whine crowd nice and triggered

 

[LESS T_T]

Likely coincide with this remaster, Louis Castle will do a postmortem talk on C&C at next year's GDC: https://schedule.gdconf.com/session/classic-game-postmortem-command-conquer/863731

Classic Game Postmortem: 'Command & Conquer'
Louis Castle (Head of Studio, Amazon Games)

Pass Type: All Access, GDC Conference + Summits, GDC Conference - Get your pass now!
Topic: Design
Format: Session

Louis Castle, a game industry veteran known best for co-founding (with fellow luminary Brett Sperry) the trailblazing Westwood Studios, will be coming to GDC 2019 to deliver a Classic Game Postmortem on the landmark real-time strategy game 'Command & Conquer'! It promises to be a fascinating hour-long deep dive into the conception, development, and design of 'Command & Conquer', a game that inspired a generation of game designers and helped popularize the real-time strategy game genre.

As Westwood’s co-founder, Castle was involved from the start, and at GDC 2019 in March he’ll take the stage to share his experience and the lessons he took from it. He’ll also share insights and anecdotes from key 'Command & Conquer' team members, so this is something you won’t want to miss!

Takeaway
Louis Castle will reflect on the early days of Westwood and explain the process of creating 'Command & Conquer', relying on both his own personal experiences and the recollections of other key team members. Attendees will get a unique look at the design and development of a classic game, enjoy some frank anecdotes about game dev in the ‘90s, and walk away with a better understanding of how you refine and popularize a genre.

Intended Audience
The target audience for this session is broad, and includes just about anyone with an interest in real-time strategy game design, the 'Command & Conquer' franchise, or the ins and outs of life at Westwood.

 

[MachineCommander]

It's official and Petroglyph is doing the remasters: https://www.pcgamer.com/command-and...red-are-being-developed-by-former-candc-devs/

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.reddit.com/r/commandandconquer/comments/9x1zcz/cc_remastered_announcement_from_ea/

C&C Remastered Announcement from EA

Fellow Command & Conquer fans,

A month ago, we let the Command & Conquer™ community know we were bringing the franchise back to the PC, starting with a remaster initiative. The reaction from fans has been amazing, with many of you sharing your favorite C&C moments from the past 23 years. We have been reading these comments and listening intently. And now, we are ready to reveal our first PC offering and how your suggestions are already influencing our approach.

Today, I’m thrilled to tell you we are going back to the beginning. We have decided to remaster Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn. And while this is incredibly exciting on its own, we’re also aware of how passionate the community is about the Red Alert universe. So, we will also remaster the original Command & Conquer: Red Alert™. But what about the classic expansion packs you may ask - Covert Ops, Counterstrike, and Aftermath? Well, C&C and Red Alert wouldn’t be the same without them, so all three expansion packs will be bundled with the base games into one remastered collection - without microtransactions.

Now, in addition to the excitement and support of this remaster initiative over the past month, there has also been a healthy skepticism that we can pull this off. How are we possibly going to remaster these titles while maintaining the authenticity of the original experiences? Bottom line, there is no better way to achieve this than to partner with some of the talented developers who brought these original games to life.

So, after years of the fans asking for their involvement, I am humbled to announce that EA is going to partner with Petroglyph Games to develop the C&C remastered collection.

Petroglyph Games includes many of the original developers from Westwood Studios, and some of the most influential members of the original Command & Conquer development team from 1995. Joe Bostic is known as the co-creator of C&C, having also served as the Lead Programmer on Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert. Steve Tall joined Joe as a Lead Programmer on Red Alert, and Ted Morris was the original community manager on the C&C franchise. And Mike Legg contributed to all forms of audio systems at Westwood, having been an employee since 1986! All four members helped start Petroglyph Games in 2003 after the closure of Westwood and are joined by a veteran group of RTS developers from the past 15+ years.

On a personal note, I can tell you the past few weeks have been surreal. During my first visit to Petroglyph, I was able to brainstorm “C&C feel” with Joe, reminisce about the jukebox with Mike, and gab with Steve about whether we should fix the Tib Dawn Harvester AI. Getting to chat C&C with the original developers has been one of the highlights of my gamer journey, and I can’t wait for all the incredible conversations to come.

In addition to the fantastic team at Petroglyph, we will also be partnering with Lemon Sky Studios to help bring these original games to 4k glory. Lemon Sky is one of the premier art studios around the world, with a unique specialty in remastering classic RTS titles. After meeting their team and hearing their passion for C&C, we are incredibly lucky to have them team up with Petroglyph to develop the highest quality C&C possible.

The exciting part is that we haven’t started development yet. The community is literally getting in on the ground floor of this project and have every opportunity to help influence how we build this remastered experience. Please continue to engage on Reddit and community channels and help us create the best possible remasters of C&C and Red Alert!

To kick things off, be sure to read the message below from Joe Bostic, and then watch the video at the bottom for one more surprise…

Welcome Back, Commander!

Jim Vessella

Jimtern



Command & Conquer community,

It was over 25 years ago when Brett Sperry and I (at Westwood Studios) worked to create a game that mixed together elements of Populous, Civilization, Herzog Zwei, and Military Madness games. Brett Sperry was visionary and I was lead programmer and designer. The result was Dune II. The first game of a new genre -- Real-Time Strategy. The subsequent game, Command & Conquer (C&C), is where the RTS genre really took off. It combined video recorded actors, rendered 3D video sequences, alternate story endings, an enigmatic villain (Kane), free multiplayer for your friend (only 1 CD was required to play and the game came with 2 CDs), context-sensitive mouse control, and two unique factions that didn’t play by the same rules.

C&C didn’t turn out as we originally envisioned. I had initially designed the game to be set in a fantasy world with three factions -- humans, wizards, magical beasts. Some months into development, Brett Sperry decided to redirect the game toward modern military for two main reasons. The gulf war was in the news so this was more relatable to gamers at the time, and also because we believed fantasy was too niche. I saw this new direction for C&C as being closer to turning my childhood experiences of playing with plastic soldiers in a sandbox into “reality” so to speak. Thus Command & Conquer Tiberian Dawn was born.

The positive reaction to the game was intense. C&C was the right kind of game that arrived at the right time.

We should have seen the clues that C&C would be a success. The QA department would have difficulty testing for bugs since they could not resist losing focus to play for fun and try to win against each other instead of the more “boring” bug-testing they were actually assigned. The rest of the studio would play the game in the late afternoon and into the early evening. I would take careful notes and then make changes overnight to start the process over again the next day.

As soon as C&C was released, we immediately started working on an expansion pack that would pivot to alternate history with a post WW II feel. We kept adding more units, backstory twists (w/ Kane), more elaborate interstitial video sequences (still campy though), and new gameplay features. It became so massive an expansion that we just had to turn it into a stand-alone game in its own right -- C&C: Red Alert. Players seemed to love this game just as much as the original C&C!

Over the years, I’ve received C&C related gifts, fan mail, and anecdotes, and two fans even got matching GDI and Nod tattoos! The most common request is to bring C&C back to its roots like the original Command & Conquer and Red Alert. My answer was always the same: “Yes that would be great! Electronic Arts (EA) is the gatekeeper for C&C though. If they are on board, so am I!”

So here we are 20+ years later and EA has reached out to us regarding C&C. They had decided it was about time to revisit the original C&C games to give the fans what they had been asking for. Petroglyph has many former Westwood employees and is a perfect fit for bringing the original Command & Conquer games back to life. I’m excited to revisit the original Command & Conquer and Red Alert for our legacy fans, along with introducing the games to a new audience! Our battle-plan mission is to “remaster” rather than “remake” the original C&C games. That definition is a little fuzzy around the edges and that is where you come in.

I’m looking forward to re-engaging with the fans of the series as we bring the Command & Conquer franchise back to its roots of “easy to play, difficult to master”. We’re eager to provide an experience that takes advantage of enhanced connectivity, graphics features, and other technology improvements that weren’t around back in 1995. As we begin to craft the plan that will kick off the development phase of the project I’m eager to hear what else fans are looking for. If you could turn back the clock, what would you have wanted in the original C&C games? How true to a remaster should we adhere do? What modern improvements can be added without deviating from the core game? Balance changes? We will be starting development soon, so now is the time to let your voice be heard.

Joe Bostic

 

[Hellraiser]

Is this some kind of out of season april fool's joke? It sounds to good (for EA) to be true...

Petroglyph are the devs, they want feedback from the fans and Frank Klepacki is on board?

Storyfag are you seeing what I am seeing?

 

[Storyfag]

Storyfag are you seeing what I am seeing?

Kane...
LIVES!

 

[Darth Roxor]

what the

 

[lightbane]

Everything will receive a remake. EVERYTHING! Even Big Riggs, I'm sure.

Also: PEACE THROUGH POWER!

 

[Storyfag]

It's official.

All my tiberium are belong to EA now.

Method of payload delivery *still* depends on the quality of the product they shall deliver. Either refined crystals of unmatched purity... or a tib warhead.

 

[luj1]

Tiberian Sun was the best C&C game.

 

[Removal]

When was the last time Petroglyph released a decent game? Empire at War? Universe at War?
This is going to end poorly and with a dash of horrible cosmic humor maybe EA will try to eat Petroglyph afterwards

 

[Morgoth]

Tiberian Sun was the best C&C game.

Second best. Red Alert 1 still tops all of them.

 

[Volrath]

Patiently waiting for them to fuck this up.

 

[McPlusle]

As much as I like these games, I don't see any reason to give EA money for this. There's already no shortage of ways to play these games without giving them money.

 

[Outlander]

 

[Space Satan]

I would rather want them to remaster C&C: Firestorm and Red Alert 2 with new non-voxel engine

 

[J_C]

If they won't fuck this up, I'll install Origin and be EA's bitch.

 

[Hellraiser]

I would rather want them to remaster C&C: Firestorm and Red Alert 2 with new non-voxel engine

Why? Ok, TS could use some graphical improvements. But RA2 has aged the best out of the Westwood games.

TD and RA have a very dated engine. I like it for what it is, it has its charm and I appreciate what Westwood did with it, but it aged like shit.

Most importantly the mission design in TD is just forgettable, probably because the game did lack a skirmish mode so the campaign had to fill-in for this. RA was an improvement in the mission design. From what they wrote so far they actually are interested in feedback on if they should just remaster the campaign missions or go for a less purist approach.

 

[Parsifarka]

Every TD map, at least the NOD campaign, is a puzzle to solve. I don't understand why this hate agaist its level design, it's excellent.
That said, I'll gladly pay to have production queues and TS/RA2 quality visuals. Yes, OpenRA and whatever, but you don't get the campaign there.

 

[Makabb]

EA going from good guys to bad guys to good guys ?

 

[Deflowerer]

Every TD map, at least the NOD campaign, is a puzzle to solve. I don't understand why this hate agaist its level design, it's excellent.
That said, I'll gladly pay to have production queues and TS/RA2 quality visuals. Yes, OpenRA and whatever, but you don't get the campaign there.

Yeah, they are puzzles because Tiberian Dawn had no skirmish AI to begin with.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Bitchin' OST, Klepper's best.

 

[vota DC]

They should do Dune 4.

 

[udm]

Hell March is my 2nd fave track in the RA series. My favourite is this:

Spoiler

I get mad gains when I bench to this