The Avengers trailers and THQ Studio Australia profile video leaked

Company
THQ Studio Australia
These videos probably won't last long, considering how fast THQ pulled offline the previous sneak peek, so check them out while you can! An anonymous ex-THQ Studio Australia developer has given Kotaku AU the tip off that they have just uploaded three videos onto youtube which showcases the Avengers movie-tie in game that they were working on before THQ pulled the plug on their Australian studios. The videos consist of two trailers which shows off the superheroes, the first-person brawler action, as well as the gorgeous looking environments that you'd battle in. The third video is one incredibly produced studio profile which is a mix of interviews with various talented employees from the world over, the work that went into the game, and a glimpse of the Brisbane studio too. Kotaku AU was informed that these videos were made as a last ditch attempt by the studio to convince Marvel to get behind the Avengers game in case the project got shelved when they got wind that the game was heading in that direction. The Avengers game had already gone through 18 months of hard work, with a total of 200 people working on the title. The Brisbane studio was working on the console version, and Blue Tongue was helping out with a version for the PC platform.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 15/09/11 - 2:45 PMPermalink

Damn! That was quick! Luckily I saw and downloaded the first video featuring the studio 15 minutes ago. The game looks pretty impressive... Can't believe all that hard work, talent and effort has gone to waste. "Make a wish.... Count to three... Come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination... Take a look and you'll see..."

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 15/09/11 - 2:52 PMPermalink

they took them down real quick. Thanks for sharing, Souri! :)

Submitted by souri on Thu, 15/09/11 - 3:04 PMPermalink

Yeh, I knew those videos wouldn't last too long. I hope the studio video makes a re-appearance and stays online after The Avengers movie is released so a take down isn't necessary, if only to serve as a historical record of the Brisbane studio.

Submitted by Anon (not verified) on Fri, 16/09/11 - 10:51 AMPermalink

Just wanted to say that BlueTongue were doing more than just the PC version. They had also been given an entire chapter of the game to work on and code were working directly with Studio OZ to enhance the over all experience.

I feel the design and art team at BlueTongue deserve a special shout out, as the chapter they were given was a late addition to the workload. and basically they had a month before it had to go out to the outsourcers. As BlueTounge was primarily a 3DS Max studio and Studio OZ was a MAYA studio they had to learn MAYA and the radically different tool systems in short order. Design and grey-box (volume and layout) the levels and then take what amounted to a quarter of the game to White box (representative - almost complete- geometry spit up and prepped for outsourcing.). There were a LOT of extra hours worked to ensure everything was ready to go.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 23/09/11 - 1:28 AMPermalink

Seems like he got his info directly from BT, because the man speaks the truth.

BT started off porting the game to PC with a small team of about 5 programmers. Later, when Oz asked for help building the huge amount of content for the main game, BT transferred most of its artists and designers from its own project on to Avengers. As stated above, they were given the task of designing and building one of the four chapters of the game. The schedule was super tight, and they had to learn Oz's unfamiliar tool chain too. But the BT guys just put their heads down, worked their arses off, and blew it out of the water like the crack team of the pros they are. They definitely deserve a shout-out for their superlative efforts.

Around the same time, an additional 7 BT programmers were brought on board to boost the development effort. Unlike the 5 guys doing the PC version, these 7 were working on core game systems and were managed directly by the leads at Oz. Essentially they were an extension of the main team.

So yeah, I reckon it's fair to say BT were doing more than just the PC port (not that there's anything wrong with that). At its peak there would have been over 30 people at BT contributing to Avengers, across all platforms.

Having said that, I don't mean to take anything away from the awesome team at Oz. Avengers was most definitely Oz's baby and they deserve full credit for the level the game managed to attain in the video. For a full year and a half everyone at the studio poured their heart and soul in to this project, which makes THQ's decision to shut it down all the more shocking. With Oz now gone, Australia loses one of its last big game studios capable of creating premium console titles.

Best of luck for the future, BT and Oz alumni. May you find success outside of THQ.