I ran into two of the industry's big talents in the elevator today. I guess that's what happens when you throw
thousands of developers into a one square block area.
Tony Goodman and
Brian Sullivan are old teammates from Ensemble Studios, the
house responsible for Age of Empires, Age of Empires II, and soon Age of Empires III. Goodman is the co-founder of the
company, while Sullivan is the co-creator of AOE. They're really nice guys. Good people. Fellow gamers.
The first day of GDC I overheard a couple of guys talking about the one page AOE3 ad in the conference guide.
"It's unbelievable what those guys are pulling off," one of them said. I agree. So imagine the thrill I got when, in a
moment of divine intervention, Goodman showed me a clip of the upcoming RTS. Let's just say it was the best 30 seconds
I've had all day. The clip was spine tingling.
You get an idea of what Age of Empires III looks like from the screenshots, but unless you have a few Stoli martinis
there's no way to enjoy it in motion yet. Scores of soldiers blasted 30 feet into the air by a cannonball. Clock towers
getting their top blown off. The environments are the richest ever done for an RTS, and perhaps any genre. Just look at
the pic.
Sullivan left the company to start his own. Industry folks have been wondering what's next for him. Well, he let it
out of the bag that his new studio, Ironlore Entertainment, will be announcing an action RTS at E3 this year. We look
forward to it.
