"Yes, we have the rights to Cyber Shock, what do you want to do with it? Making a sequel? The man on the other end of the line asked.
The person who threw the question on the phone wasn't from the game publisher, but for Star Insurance Company, an insurance company. More interestingly, the audience on the other end of the line was not Ken Levine, Warren Spector, or a famous game designer who used to work for Looking Glass Studios and Irrational Games—he was a "nobody" named Stephen Kirk, a game artist who had just lost his job and was on vacation in Guatemala.
A bonus
System Shock, also known as System Shock, is a sci-fi action game launched by legendary game development company Looking Glass in 1994, known for its complex story background and groundbreaking gameplay, and later games such as BioShock, Ex Siege and Predator are its spiritual successors. The "Cyber Shock" series did not receive great commercial success, and many years after "Cyber Shock 2" in 1999, the series did not launch a sequel, and its copyright and trademarks were constantly changed hands in the development and distribution company.
By the time Kirk called the insurance company, it was 2012. Kirk had no business background at the time, didn't know how to negotiate contracts or licensing fees, and saved less than $5,000. Given the huge influence of Cyber Shock and Cyber Shock 2 in the gaming world, it seems that he is not qualified enough to develop a follow-up to the series.
"I was deep in the jungle of Guatemala and had to surf the Internet via satellite." Kirk recalls, "I didn't plan for the next step in my career, what to do. He just took a chance mentality and proposed to the insurance company to reissue "Cyber Shock 2", but he didn't expect the other party to agree without hesitation.
"I was so happy, it felt like a dream. For me, the purpose of long-distance travel is to be exposed to new things, to recharge my brain, and perhaps to find inspiration from things I didn't know before. The sudden project ignited my passion to give it a go and see how far I could go. ”
Kirk has a high-end computer at home, but he likes to play "old-fashioned" games
Kirk and his brother Alex founded game studio Nightdive Studios, which later became known for recycling rights to old classic games. Nightdive has a complete remake of the original Cyber Shock, and the game was officially released at the end of May this year. In a sense, the "Cyber Shock" series inspired Kirk to start Nightdive, which continued to grow until it was acquired by Atari. The Guatemalan jungle isn't the starting point for this entrepreneurial journey, though.
Kirk's relationship with Cybershock began in 2000. During the snowy winter, a friend recommended Cybershock 2 to Kirk, who liked Half-Life, and asked him to borrow the game home.
"It was a perfect night, and although it was a bit chilly, it felt comfortable sitting at the computer. I was captivated by it, completely immersed in it, and played for hours. "Kirk used to playing games while listening to music." When the villain SHODAN reveals what happened on the space station, I happen to hear a song by the industrial rock band Filter... An ethereal female voice tells why humans are the cancer of the earth, and the mood of the song and game fit perfectly. I will never forget that moment. ”
Nightdive currently has more than 125 games released, mostly classic game re-releases, but also agency releases and remasters
Serendipity
After graduating from college, Kirk joined Sony Online Entertainment in San Diego as a character artist. Kirk met his girlfriend there, and both quit their jobs to travel to Central America together. "We put everything in the car and drove across the border into the Mexican city of Tijuana and were on the road for 10 months in a row." Before leaving, Kirk installed a lot of old games in his notebook, "Curse of Monkey Island", "Speed Dragon", "Fallout" and so on. On a rainy day in Guatemala, he launched Cybershock 2.
"The system kept reporting errors, tried everything but didn't work, and didn't get the game to work at all." Kirk recalls, "So I went to GOG.com and thought I could find Cybershock 2 there. GOG likes to reissue old games, so how could there be none of them? It's one of the greatest games of all time. ”
But, really, no. Kirk quickly thought of another question, where did the copyright of "Cyber Shock" go? Why can't GOG release Cyber Shock 2? Kirk couldn't find the answer online, so he searched the Wayback Machine in the online archive and eventually found the article published by the media when Looking Glass was closed. "In a report on the G4TV website, author Jared Newman mentioned that all the rights to Looking Glass were divided, and that 'Cyber Shock' went to an insurance company, but the trademark belonged to EA."
So Kirk found the insurance company and sent an email to the contact mailbox on the website. A day later, the other party's general counsel contacted him and asked if he wanted to make "Cyber Shock 3".
Kirk wants to remake the original Cyber Shock, and in 2016, he raised $1.35 million through crowdfunding
Coincidentally, around the same time, EA's trademark for Cyber Shock expired and was subsequently preemptively registered by that insurance company. Legally, the only way to protect that trademark from lapsing is to use it to make a game again. "Star Insurance Company has all the pieces of the puzzle and wants to do something with Cyber Shock but doesn't know how to do it because it's an insurance company."
It's an incredible story. In the gaming industry, Kirk was just a nobody, and it's hard to imagine that he would have the opportunity to get a license from Cybershock. "Even GOG didn't believe me and even scolded me in emails for talking nonsense because they also wanted to sign the game and worked on it for years. They couldn't figure it out at all, why could this kid do it? They asked me a bunch of questions, such as who in my family worked at that insurance company? ”
Finally, Nightdive and GOG partnered to make the Cyber Shock 2 patch possible, and Cyber Shock 2, which can run on next-generation PCs, was launched at GOG in February 2013.
After the re-release of "Cybershock 2", Ken Levine's agent got Kirk's contact information and suddenly called to ask for his real identity. "It felt like an interrogation and I thought, 'Oh my God, what's going on here?' ”
Discover the classics
Kirk often researches GOG Store's community wishlists for older games that are beloved by players but haven't yet been adapted into digital versions. For some digital versions of GOG-exclusive classics, Kirk will also try to contact copyright owners and offer to bring them to the Steam platform. "In this way, we got the rights to 'The 7th Guest' and 'The 11th Hour'. We also partnered with writer Harlan Ellison to produce a modern version of I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. Since the copyright of these games still belongs to individuals, it is much easier to talk about cooperation. ”
The physical version of "Silent Roar" was once hyped up for a high price, and now you can get an electronic remake for just $6
Over time, Nightdive's business capabilities gained widespread recognition and began working with major publishers to bring games like Dinosaur Hunter and Doom 64 to modern platforms. At the same time, the studio has always been closely associated with the "Cyber Shock" series, and in 2015, Nightdive decided to make an HD remake of the original Cyber Shock that came out in 1994.
"We didn't make significant changes to the original, so players won't feel that much has changed." Kirk said, "For example, we wanted to keep the maze-like level design, but also added the backpack management and interactivity of Cyber Shock 2 and Bioshock to this new remake. ”
In the Cyber Shock remake, Nightdive did not disrupt the narrative structure of the original campaign, but rewrote some lines in order to enhance the emotional connection between the characters. In addition, the development team has retained the shooting mode in the original game, and provided players with a choice of ammunition types, encouraging the selection of suitable weapons for different enemies. "With limited backpack space, make sure players have a lot of opportunities to experiment and find the best combination in the game. Players know that they can only carry a certain amount of ammo and weapons, so they think carefully about their options. ”
Computer Node footage from the original Cyber Shock
The same scene looks like this in the remake
Nightdive also retains the forward-thinking difficulty options of the original Cybershock. In the game, players can not only adjust the difficulty of battles and puzzles, but even change the complexity of the story according to their preferences. "If a game allows players to change a lot of elements before playing, it's more acceptable." But Kirk emphasized that unlike some modern triple-A games, Cybershock Remasters still require players to use their brains as they play. "If you want to get an authentic Cyber Shock experience, you'll have to listen to an audio log and most likely even find a piece of paper to record the password to the door."
After 7 years of tortuous production, the remake of "Cyber Shock" has been officially released on May 30.
Kirk admits that the Cybershock Remake is a costly and difficult project, and its success or failure will determine whether Nightdive will develop a remake of the same scale in the future — just as it did 11 years ago, Cybershock is once again influencing Kikik's future. But regardless, Nightdive's core philosophy remains the same. "I want to encourage people to make games that take inspiration from the past. We do everything we can to achieve our goals. The only way to do that is to save and showcase those old games so that players can play them all the time. ”
About the Cyber Shock series, you can also read:
Why does Cyber Shock continue to influence today?
20 years ago, "Cyber Shock 2" was born from them
How is Cyber Shock: Remake, which has bounced several times, doing now?
This article compiles from: rockpapershotgun.com
原文标题：《How System Shock 2 made Stephen Kick and Nightdive Studios》
Originally written by Jeremy Peel