Exploring 21st Century Game Dev through the evolution of tools.
In 2001, geo-political events rock the world. People line up for the first Harry Potter film. We’re trying to hide and celebrate at the same time. It’s crazy. The pace of the new century is circling the rim of an abyss.
What exactly are we facing in the newly minted 21st century?
Do you remember the way it felt?
It’s scary.
Streamline Studios Emerges in Amsterdam, entering FPS and 3D Gaming in the Era of PlayStation 2 and Xbox video game development
In a small town called Hilversum, on the outskirts of Amsterdam, some guys get together.
They meet online.
They hang out.
They dream.
A small group of players with outsized ambition. They come up with a name, Streamline Studios, a new video game development company, and they get to work.
These guys like to work.
They live for it.
This is the time of PlayStation 2 and Xbox, the latest video game systems. As fast as the culture is moving, game development is moving that fast, faster, leading the technology, coming up with innovations, new twists that make people line up to play the games.
Games like Grand Theft Auto III and Halo: Combat Evolved. Games like no one has seen before. Open-world and first-person shooter genres.
Where are we going with all this?
The possibilities seem endless.
Grand Theft dives deep into the rapidly emerging and seductive world of 3D, using the power of PlayStation2. You can drive anywhere! That’s how it felt. Hands on the wheel, the city is yours. The perfect meld of American freedom of the road, and action.
It’s a massive hit.
Halo: Combat Evolved modernized the First-Person Shooter era, becoming a massive success for the X-box.
This combination of FPS and 3D worlds becomes critical in Streamline’s growth. The studio takes to the tech like a rapper to a fresh beat.
They learn every new tech they can get their hands on.
They master the tools.
Every new game became a challenge. They used RenderWare 3D graphics in Grand Theft Auto III. Every developer jumps into the pool. You need to swim in these new technologies.
Streamline is literally growing up innovation by innovation. It’s the beauty of the industry. The learning never stops. The innovations keep coming.
Halo: Combat Evolved revolutionized RPG gaming with its pioneering blend of open-world and down in the mud crawler action. This game grabs you by the rucksack and won’t let go. The genius designers create an immersive experience for gamers, featuring cooperative campaigns, realistic vehicular physics, intelligent scripting — resulting in a stunningly detailed world to explore.
And a huge challenge. Suddenly, there’s a new mind-boggling wash of technology, graphics, animations, and players lying beside you in the muck. Bullets whizzing by your head. You are there.