SPLASH DAMAGE | BETA
A JOURNEY THROUGH THE SPLASH DAMAGE SCRAPBOOK Ready for my close-up – Paul’s first on-camera interview with the BBC (July 2002)
Practicing for Wolfenstein Enemy Territory at the Imperial War Museum (July 2002)
inment’s offices – a Visiting Ritual Enterta m (August 2001) rare treat for a mod tea
Splash Damage goes karting – one of many milestone celebrations (September 2002)
total conversion by replacing all the artwork, music and sound effects with completely new content. Simultaneously, in May 2001 the three leads formed Splash Damage, which started off working with Network of the World and Gamer.tv to produce a TV show based on Quake 3 Arena, designing maps and developing a TV-friendly HUD and dynamic camera system. At the start of 2002, the team approached BT OpenWorld to make some maps for the multiplayer shooters popular at the time. One of these maps, Market Garden, became the most popular third-party map for Return to Castle Wolfenstein. During this period, Wedgwood had been introduced to id coowner Kevin Cloud, who was impressed with what the team had done with id’s engine. “After that, I pretty much ICQ’d Kevin every day, saying ‘Gimme a deal, gimme a deal, gimme a deal,’” Wedgwood laughs. “They introduced us to Activision, and in early 2002 they asked us if we’d like to make three maps for the RTCW Game of the Year edition.” Again, one of those maps – Tram Siege – became the most popular first-party map. As a result, id also signed Splash Damage to develop the multiplayer part of a Wolfenstein sequel. Sadly, development of the single-player element was cancelled but, seeing the fun that people were having with Splash Damage’s component, Activision decided to continue development and release their work as a free game. DEVELOPMAG.COM
Whatchoo talkin’ about Willis - The first company-wide E3 visit (2003)
After Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory launched to much critical success, Splash Damage were given their first massive break when id put them in charge of all of the multiplayer maps for the massively-anticipated Doom 3. From there, it’s just a short jump to being given stewardship of Quake Wars.
“Each time I failed at business, I learnt that I should pay attention to a certain area…”
CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGEMENT While this company history – admittedly a largely condensed one – gives an idea to how the company has grown, it says nothing of how the studio’s professionalism has matured. Or actually, maybe that’s why it’s managed to make that rocky transition. But there are things about the way the studio is run that belie the hobbyist roots which anchor the Splash Damage tree.
Finally out of the garage into the new offices (Fe – moving b 2004)
For example: you may erroneously think that a studio with a rabidly enthusiastic mod-team core would be pretty lax with regards to letting details slip of its next project – a tantalisingly undisclosed multi-platform game for Bethesda – but meeting rooms were hurredly stripped of concept art before Develop was allowed in. Similarly, you might think that those early years of zealous all-night coding might carry on to a studio that’s firmly stuck in the old crunch model of developing games. On the contrary, not only does Splash Damage work to allieviate crunch periods to being as short as possible, it also provides all of its staff benefits that most games industry employees dream of. How has it managed to get its head so screwed on in such little time? Candidly, Wedgwood admits that the success was borne from much failure. “I’d been unsuccessful in business a couple of times in the past. But each time I failed, I’d learn something about doing things above board or that I should pay attention to a certain area. “So there I was, two or three years before I started Splash Damage, in front of the official receiver for the third time in a row, thinking I was going to get banned as a company director. The receiver said to me: ‘Paul, everybody that I know in South London that’s been successful in business has been to see me at least three times before they manage to get it right’. It was such an uplifting thing to say, because I was so depressed. I resolved that if I AUGUST 2008 | 33