Company News Troika is closed

[Fintilgin]

::sigh::

Well, there goes my faviorate RPG company.

We have not yet made the decision as to whether Troika Games as an entity will regroup and pursue future projects or simply cease to exist.

Here's hoping they regroup. I really think they should make some smaller, much less expensive to produce, hardcore games like Spiderweb or Stardock or something. Games that might not have great graphics, but can be sold online and self-published. Wargames seem to being doing well with this version of making niche titles, and I think Troika could too.

I suppose it would be hard to step back from making 'AAA' titles with awsome modern graphics and facial animations to something that looks closer to Ultima 6 or 7, but at least they'd be able to make the kind of games they really wanted by aiming at a specific smaller market without having to worry about 'bringing in the masses' and massive production costs.

 

[ElastiZombie]

Regardless of bugs and everything else, I gained real enjoyment from all three of their games. In fact, I still play all of them regularly and I still enjoy myself. That is what will be foremost in my mind when I think of Troika. It's a shame things didn't work out, for whatever reason.

 

[Volourn]

Elasti: Future Politician. I can't say anything negative about what you just posted which limits flaming oppurtunities. Damn it.

 

[Reklar]

Elasti: Future Politician. I can't say anything negative about what you just posted which limits flaming oppurtunities. Damn it.

Or just being honest, Volourn.

-Reklar
(a Fallout/RPG fan)

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

three strikes you're out dude. do you think that reputation for horribly buggy games didn't carry over?

Sorry, but that's not what did them in. In fact, it has more to do with what Vault Dweller actually said and the perception of certain people in that regard.

 

[M0rphz0rz]

three strikes you're out dude. do you think that reputation for horribly buggy games didn't carry over? again, duh. not to mention the fact that those three strikes took 7 fucking years.

Yeah, we all know a developer has to make at least 2 games per year to stay in business ... does 3D Realms ring a bell?

The fact they "only" produced 3 games in 7 years means absolutely nothing. Duh. The real problem is that the 3 games they made obviously didn't earn them enough cash.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Well, while all you guys are mocking Troika's demise, ask yourselves, who will give us a game with as much depth as one of theirs? (Arcanum mainly, but also Bloodlines in some ways.)
Edit: Also, could some of you guys, for fucking once in your pathetic lives, show just a modicum of fucking respect and not shout out and point fingers saying it was their own damn fault and just be fucking silent.

 

[almondblight]

Spiderweb? I certainly am a fully converted SS fangirl from now on.

Eh, Spiderweb has been somewhat stagnant since Nethergate. Geneforge was pretty interesting, but Geneforge 2 was more of the same. And now they're working on Geneforge 3 and Avernum 4. They're still consistantly fun, if predictable. I think other small developers will probably crop up that'll be more innovative.

 

[ElastiZombie]

Elasti: Future Politician. I can't say anything negative about what you just posted which limits flaming oppurtunities. Damn it.

Or just being honest, Volourn.

-Reklar
(a Fallout/RPG fan)

What he said.
Don't worry, I'm sure that I will say something sometime soon that will get me in the soup.

 

[Jed]

Funny thing is that I've been replaying KotOR in anticipation of the sequel. I wanted to give it another go through evil-style, mostly to check out some of the force powers I denied myself the first time. I have a clean gaming machine, well-maintained and running XP. KotOR has been out for 2 years, I have the most recent patch, yet so far I've gotten two CTDs, a recurring bug that makes the dialog for disarming mines disappear that I have to restart the game to fix, and some seriously fucked animations on HK-47.

NO MOER FREE RIDEZ, BIOWHERE! Oh, wait...


PS. If this is the last we see of Troika, I will be very sad. I, for one, am hoping they get back together with a lower-overhead business model (i.e., Stardock) that will allow them to self-publish. We love you!

 

[AlanC9]

Funny thing is that I've been replaying KotOR in anticipation of the sequel. I wanted to give it another go through evil-style, mostly to check out some of the force powers I denied myself the first time. I have a clean gaming machine, well-maintained and running XP. KotOR has been out for 2 years, I have the most recent patch, yet so far I've gotten two CTDs, a recurring bug that makes the dialog for disarming mines disappear that I have to restart the game to fix, and some seriously fucked animations on HK-47.

Weird. I never saw any of that. Maybe because I'm too lazy to upgrade from 98?

KotOR 2 tends to CTD a lot on ATI cards. But CTDs aren't a big deal, as long as you save regularly or have a regular autosave. Just pick right back up again.

The bugs in ToEE were far more serious because they deranged gameplay, as opposed to stopping it for a minute. (Don't know about Vamp -- haven't picked it up yet).

 

[baelstren]

... sigh ...

 

[Jed]

@AlanC9: I may have missed some of the rule-implemented-wrong bugs in ToEE, but as far as I know I never encountered a bug in that game. Definitely nothing that impeded the game in any way. Now the lack of a story on the other hand... Arcanum I remember having some CTDs and those awful slowdowns in Tarant. Bloodlines I've yet to play, but mostly because I hate FPS in general. I'll play it eventually, though...

Oh, and I have an Nvidia card.

 

[Spazmo]

Well, it's a goddamn shame. The only developer I can think of making real, full-on RPGs anymore is Spiderweb, and if Vogel keeps milking that same old engine, I'm going to get annoyed. While there are a lot of devs doing great stuff with quasi-RPGs (i.e., Irrational's Freedom Force and perhaps BioShock as well as the bevy of Russian games such as Star Wolves), there's no one else making old school RPGs. Basically, the wait for a deep, isometric TB RPG that isn't in ye aulde fantasy setting is going to get longer.

And best of luck to all the ex-Troika guys and gals--here's hoping you don't get stuck making Gauntlet: Seven More Sorrows.

 

[undead dolphin hacker]

PS. If this is the last we see of Troika, I will be very sad. I, for one, am hoping they get back together with a lower-overhead business model (i.e., Stardock) that will allow them to self-publish. We love you!

Oh my god. Troika self-publishing would result in products so buggy they'd cause your rig to combust...

 

[Avin]

in fact, my favorite company game was INTERPLAY, who gave us FALLOUT I. troika DID NOT made fallout, despite tim cain and the others work on it.

troyka did arcanum, toee and bloodlines. it's very sad they're gone... but I'll miss BIS's Jefferson more.

it's all woe.

 

[Shagnak]

Bummer.Shit.Fuck.



Thats all.

 

[Jed]

Oh my god. Troika self-publishing would result in products so buggy they'd cause your rig to combust...

Troika self-publishing would result in Troika being in control of the development cycles.

 

[Shagnak]

Oh my god. Troika self-publishing would result in products so buggy they'd cause your rig to combust...

Troika self-publishing would result in Troika being in control of the development cycles.

Either way, I'd take the chance. Better than another "off the production line" effort from one of the big companies.

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

Since no one wants to buy the argument that bugs did Troika in how about this: Troika made mediocre games that sold poorly. Had Troika made a Fallout or a Planescape or even a Baldur's Gate I'd be upset about this, the fact of the matter is that their games didn't even approach the level of quality seen at Black Isle. Broken game systems, moronic design decisions and copius bugs fucked Troika much more than any bullshit mainstream vs. creativity excuse. A fresh setting or a faithful rules interpretation, might be vaguely creative but they don't matter at all if the game itself is broken and not fun.

I would have traded all three Troika games to see just one more Looking Glass title or Black Isle's Jefferson.

 

[Human Shield]

If you are going to make niche titles, budget them accordingly. Trokia should have focused on keeping their designs on cheaper engines instead of throwing money on graphics that your core market doesn't focus on and the mainstream won't like your gameplay. And the bigger engines have more chance of bugs and excludes your fans that have older systems.

I enjoyed all their games but they should have thought and designed big instead of risk money on bigger projects.

I think Vampire broke their bank and wasn't want their fans wanted.

They should have taken Arcanums interactions and put in ToEE combat, that is what everyone was waiting for, not a FPS game.

 

[Jed]

So many armchair market analysists, so few worthwhile CRPGs...

 

[almondblight]

Basically, the wait for a deep, isometric TB RPG that isn't in ye aulde fantasy setting is going to get longer.

Maybe not. All we need is a good game maker and there could be a bunch. There are a couple being worked on now that are promising, hopefully they'll actually be completed. I also hope the open source community picks up speed, we might benefit from that. I've lost most of my hope for decent commercial games.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Since no one wants to buy the argument that bugs did Troika in how about this: Troika made mediocre games that sold poorly.

Actually, they all sold well enough to at least double the investment put in to them.

Had Troika made a Fallout or a Planescape or even a Baldur's Gate I'd be upset about this, the fact of the matter is that their games didn't even approach the level of quality seen at Black Isle.

Black Isle didn't exist when Fallout was made, and BioWare made Baldur's Gate. The majority of the big cheeses at Interplay who made Fallout did go to Troika while Black Isle was still being named and Interplay was divisionalizing.

Broken game systems, moronic design decisions and copius bugs fucked Troika much more than any bullshit mainstream vs. creativity excuse.

Do you honestly think publishers give a flying fuck how buggy the games they release are anymore?

I would have traded all three Troika games to see just one more Looking Glass title or Black Isle's Jefferson.

Looking Glass.. Now there's a developer that didn't make any money.

 

[AlanC9]

@AlanC9: I may have missed some of the rule-implemented-wrong bugs in ToEE, but as far as I know I never encountered a bug in that game.

Depending on your vidcard, the game lagged to unplayable levels in the Elemental nodes. There were also repeatable CTD issues with Wildshape, and a fair amount of crash and lag issues that hit some players but not all.

But yeah, the bulk of the bugs were bad rule implementations. Plus a few things like NPC looting that were not actually bugs at all -- just horrible design decisions.

Feature creep seems to have done them in. Sometime during development they tripled the number of spells in the game. Which would have been great if they had worked properly.