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ABC Warriors - Why have Rebellion not........

Started by Tarantino, 22 June, 2015, 11:55:07 PM

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Tarantino

Way back when Rebellion took over ownership of 2000AD I thought their thinking would be to create video games based on the stable of characters from the amazing back catalogue of stories in this iconic comic.

As far as I am aware, they have only created Judge Dredd Vs Death to coincide with the Judge Dredd Movie and Rogue Trooper back in 2006 and then nothing.

I don't think either of the above games were a commercial success, but surely there has to be so much more potential in other characters. Were Rebellion scared off trying out new developments based on 2000AD characters because of the lack of commercial success?

My ideal character to make the leap from comic to computer game would be Nikolai Dante; he would make an amazing character to portray. His weapons crest has so much potential and I'm sure he would be an instant hit.

This leads me on to the ABC Warriors. Surely Rebellion have no other characters to match their potential. I've just finished watching Real Steel, starring Hugh Jackman, this was an ok film but the real stars were the robots. The reason I am bringing this film up is it just shows how far production companies have come along with regards to special affects, there doesn't seem to be a line between fantasy and reality. The ABC Warriors as a film would be nothing short of amazing. I think it was in 2009 when Firestep released their short animation based on the ABC Warriors, which was one of the coolest animations I have ever seen, everybody raved about it and nobody has had the balls to follow up on it. I hate to say it but if this were in America somebody would have recognised the potential and had the foresight to take it further.

Anyway, whether it's a film or a computer game, I say to Rebellion you are sitting on a gold mine, do what you set out to originally do and start developing games based on 2000AD characters again. You seem to have focused on Dredd and may have been waiting for him to take off before developing further characters, but that hasn't happened, so stop licking your wounds and get back on the saddle, I'm sure it's not just me that would like to see more of our much loved characters on screen somewhere, be it computer or cinema.

Oh and as a footnote, does anyone know what the purpose of the ABC warrior's animation by Firestep was for?

Tarantino.

Fungus

That's interesting. Did Rebellion ever state this intention?

As a non-gamer I wouldn't like to see them take their eye off the ball and focus on gaming market [with 2000AD]. When you see Batman comics based on the videogames, well, ugh.

JOE SOAP

Quote from: Tarantino on 22 June, 2015, 11:55:07 PMOh and as a footnote, does anyone know what the purpose of the ABC warrior's animation by Firestep was for?


It was a pitch for an animated TV series but as far as I know Firestep couldn't get anyone to fund it which is the only way these things can get made.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: JOE SOAP on 23 June, 2015, 08:55:26 AM
Quote from: Tarantino on 22 June, 2015, 11:55:07 PMOh and as a footnote, does anyone know what the purpose of the ABC warrior's animation by Firestep was for?


It was a pitch for an animated TV series but as far as I know Firestep couldn't get anyone to fund it which is the only way these things can get made.

I seem to remember all the discussion centered around it being for a possible 2000ad anthology telly show. Now I'm not sure if there was any truth in that or just us fans concocting things out of the limited evidence we had at hand (or my memory being very fuzzy again?).

Such a shame it didn't happen as the snippet we got was great.

IndigoPrime

"I don't think either of the above games were a commercial success"

I imagine there's your reason. There was also a mobile Dredd shooter, although that had some pretty aggressive f2p elements that put me off.

Grant Goggans

Every so often, I break out my N64 Goldeneye, unlocked with all the weapons, and play it pretending that I'm Johnny Alpha instead of James Bond.

I try to look at it this way, though.  In 1999, Rebellion wanted to make a Strontium Dog video game and Fleetway was getting tired of publishing our comic.  We didn't get the game, we got 16 years of great comics instead.  I'd rather have Stickleback than a FPS I'd play once every 18 months or so.

(Seriously, play the Frigate level and pretend the hostages are helpless Gronks.  Lotsa fun.)

IndigoPrime

Mm. You get the feeling had pretty much any other games studio bought 2000 AD, it would have been dead long ago. The Kingsleys not only saved it, but helped (with the team of editors and other bods) to gave it a new lease of life.

Dandontdare

I was one of those who had to eat my words - when I heard that my beloved 2000ad had been bought by a computer games company, I really thought they would just run it in to the ground with terrible game tie-in strips, and it would fold in a couple of years.

How wrong could I be? The comics have gone from strength to strength, though I'm a little surprised they haven't made more games based on the IP.

JOE SOAP

Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 23 June, 2015, 11:10:52 AM


I seem to remember all the discussion centered around it being for a possible 2000ad anthology telly show. Now I'm not sure if there was any truth in that or just us fans concocting things out of the limited evidence we had at hand (or my memory being very fuzzy again?).

Such a shame it didn't happen as the snippet we got was great.


Something like that:

Firestep's Steve Maher says "We have an enviable creative challenge ahead of us in translating the extraordinarily diverse visual and narrative worlds of the 2000AD originals into animation. Beyond that we also want to structure the series in a way that mirrors the comic book- several short fully animated TV episodes of ongoing adventures, each starring a different 2000AD hero, each contained within a single show – a full motion comic." 


http://forums.2000adonline.com/index.php/topic,24705.0/nowap.html


It would take a big investment to get something like that off the ground and done properly. Several million at least.






Steve Green

Even then it's not a given - The Captain Scarlet production spent a lot of time and money on the pilot episodes, then had to change the pipeline and get Ron Thornton in to finish the series.

sheridan

Quote from: Dandontdare on 23 June, 2015, 04:06:50 PM
I was one of those who had to eat my words - when I heard that my beloved 2000ad had been bought by a computer games company, I really thought they would just run it in to the ground with terrible game tie-in strips, and it would fold in a couple of years.

How wrong could I be? The comics have gone from strength to strength, though I'm a little surprised they haven't made more games based on the IP.
To be fair they did mislead us by running a not-too-good game tie-in in the early days (something which has not been repeated, possibly due to the reception it got).

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: JOE SOAP on 23 June, 2015, 04:07:31 PM
It would take a big investment to get something like that off the ground and done properly. Several million at least.

—Insert obligatory clueless suggestion that project should be funded through Kickstarter here—

Cheers

Jim
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