View Full Version : Working Designs, what happened...
BHvrd
02-02-2004, 07:51 PM
God, games like Popful Mail, Lunar: Silver Star, Dragon Force, ah, what great freakin games!
No other game company has ever been able to capture me like Working Design games did. They had the special knack at farce and humor while still keeping you in the heart of the story. They could make you laugh then stab you through the heart in an instant.
What I want to know is what the hell happened? Such a talented studio, how did they become so lackluster? Working Designs could have easily become a Capcom, Sega, or one of the big boys. Why didn't they ever reach out more!?
maxlords
02-02-2004, 08:25 PM
It's all about the leadership. A company can't succeed when it's being sabotaged by it's owner.
Ed Oscuro
02-02-2004, 08:58 PM
What I want to know is what the hell happened? Such a talented studio, how did they become so lackluster? Working Designs could have easily become a Capcom, Sega, or one of the big boys. Why didn't they ever reach out more!?
This is why I would never let an overseas company translate my games. It seems, good sir, that you believe Working Designs actually developed those games. WD is not a "studio," it is a localization service (and one that isn't very popular right now, it seems).
Zach Meston worked there and is responsible for many of those humorous lines you speak of...but let's not go there :D
Ed Oscuro
02-02-2004, 09:01 PM
What I want to know is what the hell happened? Such a talented studio, how did they become so lackluster? Working Designs could have easily become a Capcom, Sega, or one of the big boys. Why didn't they ever reach out more!?
This is why I would never let an overseas company translate my games. It seems, good sir, that you believe Working Designs actually developed those games. WD is not a "studio," it is a localization service (and one that isn't very popular right now, it seems).
Zach Meston worked there and is responsible for many of those humorous lines you speak of...but let's not go there :D
SoulBlazer
02-02-2004, 10:20 PM
The last game that I know of that WD has released is the Arc the Lad Collection, which took me about two months of straight playing to get through. :)
Yes, the company has had very good success in picking which games to translate and bring over and I hope they release more games. It takes them forever to actually RELEASE anything, though, and current indications are that the company is going under for several reasons.
Oh, and don't count on Zach to say anything -- you recall what happened LAST time he tried? LOL
udisi
02-02-2004, 10:30 PM
The other thing, is Sony is giving them a hassle with new releases...They can't jump ship, beacuse 1) money, and 2) because most of the things they port are tied to sony somehow... also GC isn't a system that's doing very well with 3rd party software, and Xbox is american. What games could they port if they switched platforms? not a lot.
Ed Oscuro
02-02-2004, 11:44 PM
What games could they port if they switched platforms? not a lot.
GP32 and WonderSwan LOL
I guess what it comes down to is that Sony's figuring out the advantages of doing it yourself.
norkusa
02-02-2004, 11:50 PM
...Xbox is american. What games could they port if they switched platforms? not a lot.
N.U.D.E. for Xbox! You know...the hot, robotic chick simulator. I can't believe that the game is a Japanese only release considering the small number of Xbox systems sold in Japan. We NEED a game like this!
hu6800
02-03-2004, 03:59 AM
It's all about the leadership. A company can't succeed when it's being sabotaged by it's owner.
The first mistake they made was getting pissed and throwing a fit
at an E-3 show with Sega ... Something about sega not giving them enough credit.. so they started playing the "lets not give the saturn any more games" Fit...
christ that was back in like 96 or 97 or something.
SoulBlazer
02-03-2004, 04:06 AM
WD had several problems and disagreements with Sega. I'm not sure about all of them, but I know some of them involved problems with the games WD wanted to release but Sega would'nt aprove (sounds like Sony now!).
Another problem that I can confirm is about the memory cards available for the Saturn. WD went on record saying that the third party ones suck, and that no one should use them. That got them sued by Inetract, the company they mentioned by name. I believe that was settled out of court. Anyway, WD said they got many complaints with people who lost their saves on third party memory cards and that people should take the extra time and spend the extra money to get a official Sega one.
The problem with Sega was that WD tried to sell Sega memory cards themselves to gamers, for cheaper then Sega was selling them, and with a bonus. Sega told them they could'nt do that, though.
Once WD branched out to port their first PSX game (I believe was Alundra) and saw how well it sold, the writing was on the wall. They still finished their last Saturn game (Magiv Knight Rayearth, which due to delays was the LAST US released Saturn game) but have stayed with Sony since.
Curiious fact -- in the past, WD was hired to translate games for other companies. One company hired them to do a script for a SNES game! I assume the script was done, but the game was never released in the States. That's the only time they got CLOSE to a Nintendo system. LOL
Nick Goracke
02-13-2004, 02:51 PM
Curious... their website has been down for a while.
I purposely bumped a "related" post instead of making an "OMG!!! What's going on???" new post because I'd hate to make an even bigger deal out of what might be nothing, but... what's the deal?
PapaStu
02-13-2004, 03:04 PM
The last game that I know of that WD has released is the Arc the Lad Collection, which took me about two months of straight playing to get through. :)
They've actually gotten 2 games out for the PS2, though they were released around the same time as Arc The Lad Collection. Gungriffon Blaze and Silpheed... Gungriffon takes a little getting use to cause the AI in the later levels is psycho hard, but Silpheed is a good shooter... They are still out there, but arnt overly common to sumble into anymore, and you cant miss them cause theyve got signature "holifoil" covers.....
Ed Oscuro
02-13-2004, 03:47 PM
Curious... their website has been down for a while.
I purposely bumped a "related" post instead of making an "OMG!!! What's going on???" new post because I'd hate to make an even bigger deal out of what might be nothing, but... what's the deal?
I noticed this yesterday as well...didn't know this old topic was still kicking around, but hey, the site's down.
Except, as I write this edit, it's back up:
http://www.workingdesigns.com/
:hmm:
sisko
02-13-2004, 04:18 PM
Still down for me....
Keeping it positive...maybe they just changed their DNS settings....
vision89
02-13-2004, 05:45 PM
Ya Working Designs transalted a lot of great games. I'm currently trying to collect all the WD games for the Turbo Duo. Speaking of Working Designs, whatever happened with Lunar 3?
ManekiNeko
02-13-2004, 06:27 PM
Here's what happened to Working Designs... Victor Ireland's ego became so enormous that its gravitational field crushed what was left of the company.
JR
roxybaby
02-13-2004, 07:21 PM
Whoa...weird stuff! :eek 2:
Maybe I'm a gulli-bull (or I guess, a gulli-cow in my case), but here goes anyway...
I love the Working Designs games so I've been on ebay trying to get all the ones for Sega CD. To keep it short, I bought a copy of Popful Mail (overpaid for it, actually) but I was worried that the seller was running a scam because he relisted two or three more copies of the game within 36 hours. The game ended up coming and it works great so no scam. But after reading this thread I realized that I'd bought my game from a guy named Victor Ireland...at first I figured it was just a screen name tribute kinda thing but I just went back to check, and sure enough the email domain was @workingdesigns.com. So is it possible that I bought my game from Working Designs' owner? Or am I just being silly? Now I have so many questions. My little head hurts. @_@
I guess in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter who I got the game from, but it would be a nice little anecdote to share in the future.
zmweasel
02-13-2004, 07:30 PM
N/A
GameGuru
02-13-2004, 07:33 PM
Working Designs - Our Games Go To 11!
Ha ha I love it. I am sure everyone here gets that reference right?
SoulBlazer
02-13-2004, 07:39 PM
Or the ever popular joke "Our games go to 11 months delayed from the third announced release date!" :D
Atari7800
02-13-2004, 07:44 PM
Working Designs - Our Games Go To 11!
Ha ha I love it. I am sure everyone here gets that reference right?
NO and I have been wondering for years. What does it mean???
ManekiNeko
02-13-2004, 07:51 PM
Watch This is Spinal Tap. That ought to answer your questions.
It's amusingly ironic that Working Designs used to host a review page on its site, and that it took years before one of their own games was given a rating of eleven.
JR
GameGuru
02-13-2004, 08:21 PM
Nigel: No, you've seen enough of that one. This is a top to a, you know, what we use on stage, but it's very...very special because if you can see...
Marty: Yeah...
Nigel: ...the numbers all go to eleven. Look...right across the board.
Marty: Ahh...oh, I see....
Nigel: Eleven...eleven...eleven....
Marty: ..and most of these amps go up to ten....
Nigel: Exactly.
Marty: Does that mean it's...louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most...most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here...all the way up...all the way up....
Marty: Yeah....
Nigel: ...all the way up. You're on ten on your guitar...where can you go from there? Where?
Marty: I don't know....
Nigel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is if we need that extra.. push over the cliff...you know what we do?
Marty: Put it up to eleven.
Nigel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
Marty: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top... number... and make that a little louder?
Nigel: These go to eleven.
Li Wang
02-13-2004, 08:26 PM
Here's what happened to Working Designs... Victor Ireland's ego became so enormous that its gravitational field crushed what was left of the company.
JR
Bahahahahaha!
Seriously, here's a guy who seems so full of himself it'd make David Lee Roth turn red. I used to hang around RPGfan years ago, and Vic kept in contact with fans through interviews and such with the site. I think he even had an account for their message boards. That all seemed to change the moment he noticed that a poster or two dared to mention that they weren't crazy about the way WD did their games. Suddenly, RPGfan was a haven for dribbling fanboys and losers, and Vic didn't have any problem at all insinuating as much in posts on his own message board. All ties were pretty much severed there and then over a couple random board regulars (not staff members or anything) not being in love with the company. I think the last thing I heard about him and RPGfan was when he cried and sent them a cease and desist letter similar to the one Digital Press got a couple months back over some sort of crticism of him and the company that was posted on the site. Trip Hawkins has nothing on this guy.
ManekiNeko
02-13-2004, 08:39 PM
Li Wang, do you have a link to either this letter or the one that was sent to Digital Press?
JR
Li Wang
02-13-2004, 08:58 PM
I doubt either was posted anywhere.
Nick Goracke
02-14-2004, 06:14 PM
It's entirely possible. Victor has already mentioned on the WD website that he's been auctioning off WD overstock.
VGD is stocking Alundra and AtLC brand new now...
I'd recommend Alundra to anyone who missed it - it's hard to find bad 2D Zelda clones, let alone good ones!
Anyways, it looks like the servers have just been up and down for the past week or so. No cause for alarm (or cheers, judging from comments in this thread ;) ) yet.