Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Was Created from the Ashes of Cancelled Nolan-verse Batman Game – Former WB Games Exec

In the wake of Monolith Productions’ closure, former VP of WB Games Seattle Studios Laura Fryer revealed details on the development of the film Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordorand as well as details of how its critically acclaimed Nemesis system was created. In a video you can check out below, Frier spoke about his time at WB Games after helping out with Epic Ship. Gear of War 2.

“When I went to WB games, it was growing rapidly,” Flyer said. “In Seattle, the size has tripled through the acquisition and the WB Games expanded to over 1,500 people in a few years. It was an exciting and total disruption. It took me years to settle, but in the meantime we built the team and culture that was shipped out. Shadow of Mordorarguably Monolith’s most successful title. ”

Frier spoke about assembling a team that was about to create a Nemesis system during studio time. Gotham City Inn Poster and Guardian of Middle Earth. She means the studio has leadership issues, from working on a critically acclaimed title to filling its follow-up with loot boxes and ultimately shutting down.

“It’s easy to blame Warner Bros. on everything that’s wrong. The truth is, there was a problem with the film studio,” explained Flyer. “For example, if a director didn’t want to ship the game in the cinema era, you wouldn’t ship the game.”

Flyer spoke about the game codenamed internally Apollo. The game was set to feature Batman and would have been set in the same settings as the Christopher Nolan film trilogy. The video also shows early demos of Apollo, Include UI details in the title that show how the mission works.

“The idea was to create an open world game,” Flyer said. “A place where gamers could explore and solve missions. They could use different approaches, such as combat and stealth. They even had a Batman Tumbler car demo. It was cool.”

“WB was excited about the game and asked me to work in stealth mode until I could talk to Nolan,” she continued. “Well, unfortunately, when we finally spoke to him, he didn’t want to do that to us. Batman begins The game came out and it was a disaster. And he didn’t want the experience to be repeated. That was completely understood. ”

She also said the studio pitched to postpone the release of the film. Apollo Until after Nolan’s trilogy was held. However, the company’s leadership didn’t want to wait that long. Finally, work on the project was shelved in 2011. Many of the teams will then continue working on console MOBA. Guardian of Middle Earth. In the meantime, work was carried out Apollo The technology was not considered a complete waste, as it could be used in other titles.

After spending some time, we’ll talk about working on other projects. Gotham City Inn Postersimilar to the game’s partnership with the Hobbit Movie series codenamed Hydra, Flyer talks about how studio priorities need to be transformed into “the first of the game” rather than tied together with the release of the film.

The example given to the “Game First” philosophy was from Rock Stady Batman: Arkham Asylum,it is Batman It was released in the middle of Nolan’s ongoing trilogy and developed without replicating any images of the film. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor It was another example of the same philosophy. Because it was a game based on the property of major films that did not directly reproduce similar images.

“Shadow of Mordor Frier said. “It has a unique story and game mechanics, but it fits lore, strengthens the story and brings new fans. This is why I was surprised when I found out that Monolith was working on a new IP. I found a way to work with WB. As long as it’s roughly fit within the franchise, you’ll get the ultimate creative freedom in the game.”

After spending more time on how monolith production as a studio was built with the idea that multiple projects were developed simultaneously, Flyer continued to talk about how attempts to follow the trends in WB ultimately led to the development of the Nemesis system. Shadow of Mordor.

“It all started when Rocksteady was shipped. Arkham Asylum In 2009, Flyer said. Then, sales suddenly fell. We could see this as the data from the game analysis revealed that more people were playing than they paid. ”

“The theory was that people would play through the game and get paid back to the retailer. This was very common for gamers. You could buy the game and sell it to a company like Gamestop and sell it to other companies. The first copy lost millions of dollars.”

Under development of Shadow of Mordoran internal question in the studio is, “How do I create a single-player game, how can people keep the disks in their libraries forever?”

“Constraints could lead to better designs, and the stellar team we built solved because of this constraint,” Flyer explained. “After shipment War in the Northstarted by some of our talented team members (Shadow of Mordor)). I love our incredible art director, Phil (Straub) and the talented design director Michael. ”

Ultimately, when you go to the Flyer story, it looks like a game that has never been released based on Nolan Batman The trilogy was to form bones for what would become the end Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5f65wksxqa