GDC 08: Epic admits UT3 hindered by deadlines, console friendliness

Posted Feb 22, 2008 at 10:05PM by QJ Staff Listed in: PS3, Xbox 360, PC Gaming Tags: Epic Games, Jeff Morris, Mark Rein

Over at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Epic Games' Michael Capps, president, and Jeff Morris, senior designer, discussed in a panel entitled "UNREAL TOURNAMENT 3 Postmortem: ULTRA KILL!" what difficulties the company faced in bringing out Unreal Tournament 3 (Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Xbox 360).

Both spoke about the UI interface - obviously made to support consoles - which PC fans have often hurled bitter words with at the official UT forums.

Morris admitted that the UI of UT3 had its issues. In order to be friendlier to consoles, the interface incorporated a page per page progression, which wasn't exactly as intuitive as the older Unreal Tournament installments (i.e., UT99's UWindows UI).

A petition banner made by Felarian01 for a better UT3 UI - Image 1

UT forums user Felarian01's petition banner

For those experienced with the interfaces of UT99 and UT2k4, the new interface was often considered a waste of time and clicks for gamers trying to jump immediately into a game. And the senior designer attributed this fact to why the game isn't as great as it should have been.

Capps even went as far as to say that the interface was "f*cked," which were really the sentiments of many beta testers when QJ.NET previewed the UT3 beta demo.

For PC fans of Unreal Tournament 3, the user interface was second to none in the ranks of negative feedback, aside from the fouled up camera height level, and the tricky mouse aiming controls. Weapons, balance issues, plump character models then populated the other portions of list of gripes, though not all were addressed with UT3's first patch. So, the community is picking up that task by themselves.

Samples of the proposed UT3 UWindows design by Felarian01

Morris then mentioned how many other features never went into the game, since they had deadlines to meet. The funny thing is, the deadlines were self-imposed by Epic, and they really tried to press themselves for a simultaneous PC and PS3 release. That didn't actually happen, we know, but it was close enough.

As a quick note, another non-panel discussion with VP Mark Rein unearthed that Epic Games considered Unreal Tournament 2003 as a "misstep." He said that the UT2k3 was developed by an "external team." Many have claimed that the 2003 version felt a half-baked game.

With many things noted to have gone missing with UT3, would Epic consider Unreal Tournament 3 - or at least the PC version - as another misstep? We'll probably find out soon, as UT3 isn't as popular as it's predecessors UT2k4 (multiple Editor's Choice awards) and UT99 (multiple Game of the Year awards) were years ago.

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Comments

# Should be obvious... — Neuromancer 2008-02-22 20:33

If the customer wants the interface scrapped, then scrap it. The PC menus can be different than the PS3 and X360 menus. This is what betas are for...

# Interesting. — Stealth! 2008-02-22 21:46

I suppose this doesn't say anything on the 360 progress or even if its going to happen.

Nice read and i agree with Neuromancer

# UI should be endless series of controls instead — damonous 2008-02-23 06:22

I guess, then, the UT3 UI should be an endless series of tweak-controls to sift through at 6pt Fonts. --Come on, UT3 is getting flak from PC gamers? Exactly how many of THOSE are left anymore, anyway? --A bit like asking a caveman to tell you what's wrong with the tire on your Corvette. :-)

How about another PC/console comparison: Test Drive Unlimited. A healthy set of control configurations on Xbox 360. On the PC? --An endless set of configurations and options to set a unique control for things as mundane as ejecting the cup holder (well, not really, but you get my point) to just about every key on your controller as well as every key on the QWERTY. ...Just stupid. The PC gamers (and I used to be one) can shove it up their dinosaur hind-ends!

# cha — hush404 2008-02-23 12:06

I dun even like the menu in the PS3 version. I hate clicking all teh way through dumb options. A simple 1 page setup could of been done no problem.

I really don't know what the other b!tching is all about, I've got no gripes aside from the menus.

# It's not as popular or acclaimed.... — Shatterdome 2008-02-23 20:03

Because it's a whole load more of the same Shyt as before......UT99 was somewhat fresh with the only other fast paced shooter being quake.....UT2K4 introduced alot of vehicles and objective based gameplay......UT3 introduced.....fancy graphics.....and a whole lot more of the same old shyte.....

Trying to blame the success (or lack of) of the game on the User Interface is just ridiculous.......a good game with a crappy UI will still be a good game.......a crap game with a crap UI is still a crap game......

Sorry to say it Epic, but ditch UT and focus on Gears......

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