Gamespy talks to Dusty Monk on starting up Windstorm Studios
An excellent article put together by Gamespy today as they talk to Ex-Senior Ensemble Studios programmer Dusty Monk. Dusty who worked at Ensemble Studios for 15 whole years discusses how valuable his Ensemble friends Graeme Devine and Tony Goodman have been helping him set up the new studio. Dusty has some freelance and ex- Ensemble people working part time on his presumed futuristic MMO.
He also talks about his thoughts on the closure of Ensemble and what its been like to set up a new studio in these economic times.
I wish him all the best and we will be following him closely here at Remember-EnsembleStudios.com
Full article: http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/articles/969/969790p1.html
Dont forget to check out the Windstorm website! www.windstormstudios.com
So where are they now? Dallas Observer discusses Robot, Bonfire and Windstorm
No, thats not a picture of Ensemble Studios’ old offices. Instead it is a picture of a near by building which was demolished before the closure of Ensemble Studios as discussed in Bruce’s Blog.
You may be wondering where Robot and Bonfire are based now that they have disbanded from Ensemble. Well the Dallas Observer revealed today that Bonfire Studios has taken up the helm in Ensemble Studios old offices in Dallas. Robot Entertainment on the other hand are based in Plano.
It may be assumed that Robot have taken up offices in Plano and that these offices are the same offices that Ensemble Studios was planning to move into before its closure. One might also remember that Bruce Shelley hinted in his blog that with Microsoft shutting down the studio means that they no longer have to pay for these new offices.
With Robot moving out of the old Dallas offices and moving into Plano this may explain why its taken a little longer for them to get thier website up and running. No doubt the move involved lots of work re-creating an IT Infrastructructure for the company.
More information on this can be found here in the Dallas observer: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/040409dnmetvideogames.3b84ec9.html
New Bonfire blog: “Defending the Prophet rush as Captain Cutter”
Bonfire Studios have released another developers blog focusing on Halo Wars. This time the team discusses some ways Halo Wars players can combat the Covenant leader rush particularly when playing as Cutter and your team mate is rushing with the Prophet of Regret. Check out the new blog here:
Gamespot interviews David Rippy. Talks about Ensemble’s closure and whats happening with Bonfire!
Quick update here – Gamespot have managed to hold a Q&A session with Bonfire head and ex producer at Ensemble, David Rippy. David talks about some of the things surrounding Ensemble’s closure though he much re-iterates what Bruce Shelley has said in the past that Ensemble has lost sync with the vision of its parent (Microsoft). He goes on to talk about what it is like to start an independent studio in the economic climate and how it differs from being an independent developer from an acquired developer.
A good read here: http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6206580.html
Ensemble’s Halo Wars sells a million copies already, becomes the fastest selling console RTS ever!
Great news for Halo, RTS and Ensemble fans as Microsoft has revealed that Halo Wars has ALREADY sold more than a million copies and has become the best selling RTS of this console generation! What a great reason to celebrate!
Outstanding job Ensemble!
This news is somewhat bittersweet as despite Halo Wars outstanding early success the studio was shut down. Hopefully Robot, Bonfire, Windstorm will have the resources they need to keep making great games.
Good job!
Sources:
http://www.t3.com/news/halo-wars-becomes-the-best-selling-rts?=38421
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/news.phtml/23064/24088/halo-wars-sells-millionth-game.phtml
http://www.virginmedia.com/games/gamingnews/news-story.php?storyid=37317869
Oh and by the way… Its not over yet, Robot is working on DLC as we speak!
Senior Ensemble programmer Dusty Monk launches new studio “Windstorm Studios”
Dusty Monk is the president and founder of another game studio to arise from Ensemble’s ashes. Dusty has great passion for online MMO games and worked closely with Ensemble’s Halo MMO. It is currently unknown whether Windstorm will be developing an MMO or something else all together.
You can find the studios launch site here: http://www.windstormstudios.com
As Dusty says on the website:
“For pretty much my entire life I’ve played in and worked on virtual worlds. From Islands of Kesmai on the Compuserve Information Service, to Ultima Online, to Everquest, to World of Warcraft, since I was a teenager I’ve possessed a passion for playing and participating in these realms, and dozens more. In 2008, when Microsoft closed my then employer Ensemble Studios, I saw an opportunity for something new – not just for myself, but for the genre which I love so much. Windstorm Studios is the realization of that opportunity. I bring with me close to fifteen years of professional game development experience, and have contributed to some of the best triple-A titles in the business. Furthermore, I bring a wealth of firsthand knowledge of how a top notch studio is run and maintained – taken from my tenure at one of the most respected game development houses in the industry, Ensemble Studios.”
Asian Dynasties co-developer Big Huge Games may shut down
More sad news for RTS fans as today Shacknews reports that THQ has put Big Huge Games up for sale. BHG has previously worked with Ensemble titles Age of Empires where they brought the expansion pack for Age 3 “The Asian Dynasties” in collaboration with Ensemble. As BHG were friends of Ensemble its sad to hear that they too are falling on troubled times and wish them the best of luck.
Updated: addtional sources:
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/57708
http://www.crispygamer.com/news/index.php/2009-03-17/big-huge-games-for-sale/
Bonfire’s Bill Jackson talks about opening a new studio in the current economic climate
Joystiq have had a quick few words with Bill Jackson the ex Producer at Ensemble Studios who has joined the Bonfire venture. He discussed briefly the last 12 months and says that despite what has happened with Ensemble “It’s actually a great time to work on innovative game designs and think about ways to change our business models to support those games.”
The full article can be read here: http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/17/weathering-the-economic-storm-start-ups-speak-out/
Robots at work; Halo Wars.com gets re-branded and DLC coming
Halo Wars fans who often visit the official Halo Wars community website may have noticed that as of yesterday the site had been re-branded from Ensemble Studios to Robot Entertainment. Whilst I am pleased that Robot get to make their mark its somewhat sad that the Ensemble name has been removed.
Robot Entertainment folk are working on Halo Wars DLC which I imagine will be announced in the next few weeks. It is unknown whether the DLC will completely or partially re-brand the game to Robot Entertainment. Tony Goodman’s crew are staying zipped about what the DLC is going to include. Good news is however in traditional Ensemble fashion they are actively listening to fans and players on the forums. You can catch people like Dave Pottinger and Jerome Jones who were both leads on Halo Wars browsing the forums. Just look for the Robot logo under their names.
Of course another thing we can expect soon is the launch of the Robot Entertainment website which has been displaying a splash screen for quite a while; keep checking back here by adding us to your RSS feed and we’ll let you know when it goes live.
A few other updates…
I know I’ve promised updates to the Bruce Shelley and Ben Donges blogs, I’ll try to get them up soon.
Oh, and, I’m sorry to report that ES_Paragon and ES_Solus are no longer with the Ensemble crew at Robot or Bonfire, but are pursuing other opportunities. We wish them good luck with that. 🙂
Dusty Monk talks about Ensemble’s cancelled Halo MMO “Titan”
Dusty was a senior programmer for Ensemble Studios who worked on the Ensemble Halo MMO. He sure seems passionate about the MMO genre and he reveals lots of information about the project including the length of time the team were working on it – 2 years in fact. To have an insight of what Ensemble was doing between 2006-2007 have a read here:
http://ofcourseillplayit.com/?p=131
A reminder of Titan..
In case youve forgotten or arnt aware of Ensembles Halo MMO here are some of the very early mock-up designs:
