In 2000, when Nintendo handed their prized Metroid franchise to the then-untested Retro Studios with orders to reinvent the 2D series in three dimensions, fans were understandably worried. But against all odds, Retro delivered Metroid Prime, one of the GameCube’s greatest masterpieces. Now, Kotaku is reporting that three key members of Retro Studios have formed a new venture, Armature, to create brand-new intellectual properties — and have already signed an exclusive publishing deal with Electronic Arts in which to begin doing so.Currently comprised of Mark Pacini, Todd Keller and Jack Matthews (respectively lead design, lead art and lead engineering on all three Metroid Prime titles), Armature has an interesting concept. Seeking to create triple-A titles with a minimum of permanent staff (and thereby, a minimum of risk), their plan is to build a tiny studio around seasoned industry veterans, develop game concepts and, when a project is deemed worthy of full production, outsource the busywork. From the article at Kotaku:
The deal with Electronic Arts is an experiment of sorts, Pacini said. Under the agreement, the studio will report to EA General Manager Lou Castle as part of EA’s secretive Blueprint Division. Castle is acting Executive Producer of the Armature Studio games. Instead of operating like typical game development studios, the core team at Armature Studio will work on game prototypes. Once a game is ready for development a bulk of that work would be shifted to an external team or another studio, while the Armature people would follow the project as directors.
“We would still be very hands on,” Pacini said.
While studios have tried versions of this in the past, none have tried to keep a central core of directors on to supervise the projects, Pacini said.
“We are interested to see how it goes past the prototype stage,” he said. “Our studio is the grand experiment. It’s kind of a really different take on how to make these larger scale games.”
It seems that the name “armature” is quite apt: when speaking of sculpture, an armature is defined as a framework, or in the case of humanoid figures, a skeleton of supporting material around which the work is constructed. Here, Armature seeks to be that framework, that skeleton crew that supports and guides a game’s creation.
Armature is currently hiring for eight positions; all but one require a minimum of five years’ experience.
Though Kotaku notes that the current contract with EA would preclude the team from working on another Metroid title, the team is also no longer bound to Nintendo consoles, and will now be producing for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as well.
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