Absurd Ventures (Dan Houser's company)

[Jason]

There's no evidence of anything you've said.

 

AAA studio vets leaving and banding together in a new studio with more freedom is not uncommon in the games industry.

[AverageOnlinePlayer]

New teaser today

 

 

[deadasdisco]

 

Hiring a Lead Gameplay Designer which confirms ambitions on developing a third person "open world action-adventure game" with notable,

- Experience developing non-combat forms of action gameplay (driving, mounts, climbing, traversal, platforming, etc.) 

 

Full description:

 

Quote

 

Summary

 

Become the primary vision holder and hands-on contributor for character, controls, and camera design in an open world action-adventure game. The person in this role will lead a team of multi-disciplinary specialists to deliver best-in-class combat and third person action across multiple game modes.

 

Responsibilities

 

• Drive the design and implementation of all moment-to-moment player-feel gameplay in alignment with direction from a senior leadership team.

• Establish a gameplay vision that serves the player fantasies and creative direction, then evangelize that vision to the broader team.

• Lead designers, engineers, animators, artists, and external co-dev partners to deliver playable progress at regular intervals as part of a rapid iterative process.

• Incorporate feedback from peers, playtests, and senior leadership to refine and pivot as the game demands.

• Go beyond documentation and management to lead from the trenches, with hands-on contributions to the playable experience.

• Establish metrics and best practices for environment and encounter design to support optimal gameplay.
   

Qualifications

 

• 5 or more years of experience in combat design for an action game

• Experience developing both melee and shooting action mechanics

• Sensitivity to animation systems and how they relate to combat and action gameplay design

• Awareness of casual gamers' needs and ability to reduce barriers to entry with accessible moment-to-moment gameplay

• High attention to detail with the ability to communicate and directly implement precision refinements that take an experience from good to great

• High confidence and comfort in the technical, aesthetic, and design aspects of gameplay and player-feel

• Recent experience with direct implementation in the form of visual scripting, animation, or other individual contributions to action gameplay

• Experience developing non-combat forms of action gameplay (driving, mounts, climbing, traversal, platforming, etc.)

• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams is a plus

• Multiplayer combat design experience is a plus

• Experience in UE4 or UE5 is a plus

• Experience working with co-development partners is a plus
   

Description

 

• Full time job with benefits

• Role is on-site in Santa Monica, CA

• Office is located near downtown Santa Monica – near metro and freeways

 

 

 

 

Edited May 15, 2024 by deadasdisco

[Spider-Vice]

Well I'm certainly looking forward for this to be absolutely blown out of proportion now that VGC has stolen it from here without credit lol. Dan Houser being involved won't magically make it GTA v2 because it's not like he is a game designer, and the team is what makes a game, but we'll see what comes out of this. Those look like very early job listings considering the company has only recently been fully integrated.

[Jason]

I'm looking forward to seeing whatever they make because they're talented as hell and made some of my favourite ever games.

 

I'm not looking forward to the lazy press or the weird fans who'll turn this into R* vs AV and how this is gonna be a GTA/R* killer before they've even seen a second of footage. We all saw how that went with Everywhere, lol.

[Spider-Vice]

Plus like, Dan & co were writers, they weren't responsible for the games as a whole at large, mostly their story and world building. So although it might be good in that regard, we can't comment on how good this supposed game will play, what the combat is gonna be, etc.

 

GTA writers going to a new company that is coincidentally making an open world game does not indeed make it GTA v2. Benzies was more of a designer type and, as you said... yeah lol. So much arguing and BS about him "totally, absolutely" making a GTA clone and we have Everywhere instead.

 

I'm obviously interested to see whatever happens, probably only in like 5-6 years from now, but the usual BS reporting is gonna be very tiresome.

[Jason]

It's the world and story I'm more intrigued by than what the gameplay genre is, as I think the ability to tell fresh stories is the real driving force behind the studio and the founders motivations, and not the desire to go all Kojima and try and create new genres.

[deadasdisco]

21 minutes ago, Spider-Vice said:

Plus like, Dan & co were writers, they weren't responsible for the games as a whole at large, mostly their story and world building. So although it might be good in that regard, we can't comment on how good this supposed game will play, what the combat is gonna be, etc.

 

GTA writers going to a new company that is coincidentally making an open world game does not indeed make it GTA v2. Benzies was more of a designer type and, as you said... yeah lol. So much arguing and BS about him "totally, absolutely" making a GTA clone and we have Everywhere instead.

 

I'm obviously interested to see whatever happens, probably only in like 5-6 years from now, but the usual BS reporting is gonna be very tiresome.

 

7 minutes ago, Jason said:

It's the world and story I'm more intrigued by than what the gameplay genre is, as I think the ability to tell fresh stories is the real driving force behind the studio and the founders motivations, and not the desire to go all Kojima and try and create new genres.

I definitely think it will be a smaller scoped title. There's a lack of innovation in the grounded open world action titles nowadays; Watch Dogs really had an opportunity. Two i'm looking forward to is the first game from Just Cause creators studio Liquid Swords & the Last Sentinel game headed up by ex Studio Head of Rockstar.

 

I had a small conversation with fellow Aussie Brendan Mcnamara (Creator of LA Noire) and he mentioned to me to the vein of "I think that the kind of games that I would like to make are out of sync with what the games business thinks audiences want" - which is not surprising. 

Edited May 15, 2024 by deadasdisco

[Jason]

I'm not even convinced it'll be open world my self. Maybe more of a linear game with open sections is what I'm guessing, if not out right linear. Open worlds are just so f*cking time and resource intensive to make nowadays.

[AverageOnlinePlayer]

 I kinda hope it’s a GTA “clone”, give it something to compete with

 

might be a low iq take but still

Edited May 15, 2024 by AverageOnlinePlayer

[Dick Justice]

I look forward to this coming out in 2031. 

[Spider-Vice]

20 hours ago, AverageOnlinePlayer said:

 I kinda hope it’s a GTA “clone”, give it something to compete with

 

might be a low iq take but still

Eh, games like GTA are becoming unsustainable to make, especially for smaller studios. Might as well make something more manageable and more original. People were saying the same about Build A Rocket Boy and they decided to do something else entirely, it was all in the fans' head that they were going to do a GTA clone.  

[And It Came To Pass]

Little teaser for A BETTER PARADISE audio series just came out.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-4_LkEu7Nc

Out next mont, June 10

[AverageOnlinePlayer]

 

interesting 

[Distrom]

54 minutes ago, AverageOnlinePlayer said:

 

interesting 

They even got Andrew Lincoln for this.

 

Seems like their main goal is to tell stories not just through video games but other media.

I dig it.

Edited May 16, 2024 by Distrom

[American Venom]

Rockstar Co-Founder Dan Houser's New Game Will Be an Open World Adventure Set in a Sci-Fi Expanded Universe

Since IGN has now reported the new open-world game from Absurd Ventures is set in the A Better Paradise universe, figured maybe it would be better to create a new topic, dedicated to both the audio drama's release which is next month and also any other leaks and rumors about the their untitled video game project.

(Dear mods please feel free to delete the topic if it's spam)

[Zapper]

On 5/16/2024 at 11:07 PM, Distrom said:

Seems like their main goal is to tell stories not just through video games but other media.

I dig it.

 

In my opinion, looking at projects like this, it makes sense why he left Rockstar. He would've never been able to do these kinds of things there. One Rockstar game is more or less a decade-long process now, and the way it's going now, if he stayed there, he probably would've worked on 3–4 projects at best for the next 15-20 years.

 

Obviously, not everyone would view things similarly, but I wonder how some people feel when they start working on something and have an idea that it won't see the light of day until the next 8–10 years. I feel like this is an issue with the current way of doing things.

[Jason]

Oh it is open world? That's interesting. A new open world from these guys would be interesting to see.

 

And yea, top devs at AAA studios have been leaving the nest to go back to their roots from a creative PoV for yonks, but nowadays if you're in your late 40's or early 50's and you're still knee deep in the established AAA business, especially at a studio like R*, you're likely looking at one or two more games max left in your career and that's gotta make you think about what you want those games to be.

 

I fully expect that in the next 10 years we'll see some huge industry figures retirement or move on from their current studio, cause so many are now reaching that age where they'll wanna do one last thing or have simply had enough.

[IzzyBlues]

On 5/17/2024 at 2:42 AM, AverageOnlinePlayer said:

 

interesting 

It's so weird hearing Andrew Lincoln saying "Red Dead Redemption" and "Grand Theft Auto".

[Sneaky Queeky]

Can't wait to see what the minds of the most successful, and most consumed piece of fluff, come up with next! 

[MaveriX]

4 hours ago, Jason said:

if you're in your late 40's or early 50's and you're still knee deep in the established AAA business, especially at a studio like R*, you're likely looking at one or two more games max left in your career and that's gotta make you think about what you want those games to be.

 

I fully expect that in the next 10 years we'll see some huge industry figures retirement or move on from their current studio, cause so many are now reaching that age where they'll wanna do one last thing or have simply had enough.

50 year old Dan Houser be like:

[DUNK512]

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/entertainment/news/former-gta-and-red-dead-redemption-writers-releasing-new-fictional-podcast/ar-BB1nNpTS

 

https://www.mensjournal.com/videogames/lazlow-interview-absurd-ventures
 

new interview from Dan and lazlow  about the Audio Drama and some hints about the future AAA Sci-Fi planned in this universe. 
 

There’s an interesting tidbit about Johnny death in there but other than that.

 

it’s the usual fluff

[Tex2]

On 5/18/2024 at 4:22 PM, Zapper said:

In my opinion, looking at projects like this, it makes sense why he left Rockstar. He would've never been able to do these kinds of things there. One Rockstar game is more or less a decade-long process now, and the way it's going now, if he stayed there, he probably would've worked on 3–4 projects at best for the next 15-20 years.

This new open-world game isn't that much different. It's a 4–5-years-down-the-road type of game. Still ambitious projects, but now woven through these new universes or other forms of media.

[deadasdisco]

31 minutes ago, Tez2 said:

This new open-world game isn't that much different. It's a 4–5-years-down-the-road type of game. Still ambitious projects, but now woven through these new universes or other forms of media.

I’m glad they are still ambitious whatever that entails and are sticking to the medium, can’t wait tbh. 
 

“the team has big ambitions for its future video games, blending storytelling with interactivity and expanding on what they learned on GTA and Red Dead to create believable worlds full of characters, authentic and grounded.”

[Shahanshah]

"We're gonna do something incredible here"

Okay let's see Dr.Tyburn

They've posted the first 2 episodes rather silently buy you won't see me complaining hehe

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-better-paradise/id1746607228

[AverageOnlinePlayer]

Yup new episodes out

[facelift365]

How do they make money when you can listen to it for free?

[arnoamnii]

i'm liking what I'm hearing... Sounds like Dan's approximation to Buddhism.

[American Venom]

First episode was promising but Lazlow's jump scare in the middle of the episode was such a hilarious self-parody man 

[Shahanshah]

One week after,

What do we think of Better Paradise?

 

The setting does seem very promising. Doesn’t it?