Working Designs Working No More [Archive]

fitbabits

12-13-2005, 07:46 AM

Thanks to our own Buddha Lotus for the head's-up (http://www.workingdesigns.com/forum/showthread.php?t=118916).

Working Designs is gone. All the staff has been laid off and the office is closed and has been for some time.

For the future, there are still great opportunities. I have been in touch with a number of other publishers and manufacturers and I will be working with some of the WD staff to do games for other publishers for the time being, but not as Working Designs. One thing that holds a ton of promise is XBOX 360 RPGs, and I've contacted Microsoft about getting what's underway in Japan out in the US and helping to get more done worldwide. We'll see what happens on that front, but please let them know that YOU WANT MORE JRPGs here. There's some amazing stuff coming for the '360 in Japan, and I know I want it - I think you will, too.
Not at all familiar with Working Designs, but I know some people who think they are the bee's knees. Always sad to see a dev house closing. :(

Heretic Machine

12-13-2005, 07:48 AM

It sucks that these people lost their jobs, but I'd like to make one thing clear: I DON'T WANT ANYMORE J-RPG'S HERE!

OUX

12-13-2005, 07:54 AM

I don't even care where they come from at this point just SOME decent RPGs are welcome here. I am not to familiar with these guys but this makes me sad.

EDIT: I thought about it after I posted and suddenly though "well come is not what I meant at all"

earthworm48

12-13-2005, 07:54 AM

You might not. Others do. If you don't want them just don't buy them.

Knite

12-13-2005, 07:56 AM

Yes, I would not mind a JRPG for Microsoft's system. It's probably one of the few things I occasionally consider using my Ps2 for. I badly want to try Dragon Warrior.

Vandenh

12-13-2005, 07:59 AM

"Working Designs"? Ha yes I remember these guys... they refused to port anything to Saturn. Looks like they were killed by the JRPG apathy in the West.

AspectVoid

12-13-2005, 08:04 AM

Working Designs released some of my favorite Strategy RPGs in Growlanser 2, Arc the Lad, and Vangaurd Bandits. I'm really rather dissapointed in this as I was hoping they'd bring Growlanser 1 and 4 here.

Buddha Lotus

12-13-2005, 08:07 AM

They also did Dragon Force (which has just been re-released in Japan on the PS2 as a budget title) and Magic Knights Rayearth.

I *think* they did that amazing WW2 strategy game for the Saturn.

A GREAT company that will be missed.

vornskr

12-13-2005, 08:08 AM

Who were these people again? Any actual published titles to their name?

[edit: I do not post fast enough, obviously. But that being said I still haven't heard of those games before :p 'Cept Arc which I never played..]

noxa

12-13-2005, 08:13 AM

Arc the Lad was nifty, but more importantly Lunar and Lunar 2 kicked ass. Two of my favorite RPGs. I kind of enjoyed the GBA version of Lunar better (done by another company), but it probably never would have come out if it weren't for the PSX version by WD. WD also kept up some incredible quality. My copy of Lunar included a making of movie, a soundtrack CD, a pendant (from the game), and a cloth map; and this was for $40! Sad to see these guys go, as the only console games I play are RPGs (besides Shadow of the Colossus) and X360 won't get me to shove my PS2 in the closet until it gets some.

copasetic

12-13-2005, 08:22 AM

Noxa
You bought a 360 at launch and you only play rpgs?

Malovech

12-13-2005, 08:34 AM

JRPG = Japanse RPG?

Kelegacy

12-13-2005, 08:39 AM

The amount of ignorance on this site is exceptional. If you don't like JRPGs, why not tell us again for the 100th time?

Working Designs was instrumental in localizing MANY RPGs (and extremely well), and the Lunar games, Magic Knight Rayearth, Dragon Force, etc. were among them. It is awful to see them have to close down, but they were a studio that took its bloody time, making sure things were right, before releasing a game. As a result, they never had a lot on their plates, so they probably starved to death.

Again, they will be sorely missed.

OpTiMaL

12-13-2005, 08:50 AM

Sad to see Working Designs go. Some of my favorites included Alundra, Albert Odyssey, and Magic Knight Rayearth. As noxa mentioned they would usually include all sorts of cool extras at no extra cost. Sucks that there are some good videogame developers/publishers that go under while others that produce nothing but garbage thrive.

Banacek

12-13-2005, 08:56 AM

Such a shame, maybe it's time I pull out the old Sega CD and play some of the classics that Working Designs brought us...

emperordahc

12-13-2005, 08:58 AM

WD brought some great RPGs over. *Salute*

Roc Ingersol

12-13-2005, 09:07 AM

It sucks that these people lost their jobs, but I'd like to make one thing clear: I DON'T WANT ANYMORE J-RPG'S HERE!
QfT.

I welcome as many RPGs as they can throw at me.
But J-RPGs aren't.

Tohoya

12-13-2005, 10:23 AM

Damn, that sucks. WD was the best localization team in the buisness IMO. They'll be missed.

AspectVoid

12-13-2005, 10:25 AM

QfT.

I welcome as many RPGs as they can throw at me.
But J-RPGs aren't.

I've argued this before, but what it comes down to is that you're wrong. A JRPG is simply a different GM style then a western RPG when going PnP. Just because YOU haven't played in that style of a PnP RPG before doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Rommel

12-13-2005, 10:50 AM

Working Designs was a company that released some of the more obscure Japanese Role-Playing Games in the states; the ones not made by Square or Enix. They were known for doing more than translating the games but completely localizing the dialogue and presenting collector's editions that were on par with those found in Japan. They had their hits and misses when deviating too far from the original material and had a poor track record making release dates, but were responsible for releasing many classic titles that would have never made it to these shores.

For me, Working Designs will always be synonomous with two things. The first was my Sega Saturn. I remember playing Albert's Odesscy and marveling at how one RPG could be so simple yet provide such a wonderful story - twice! I can quote almost all the inappropriate text in Magic Knight Rayearth. The second is their website's RPG critic, long since retired. Robert Schmitz was a brilliant writer that I would emulate for years to come in every facet, from pen to paper.

Working Designs will be missed. I wish the staff all the luck in the world in all future endeavers.

Valkyrist

12-13-2005, 11:25 AM

It is a sad, SAD day when I read this many ppl not know who WorkingDesigns were... There was a day and age when you mentioned their name next to Squaresoft as if they were equals.

The Lunar Series
Magic Knight Rayearth (which was on the Saturn, thank you drive through)
Arc the Lad
Growlancer
Alundra
Elemental Gearbolt
Shining Wisdom
Albert Odyssey
Popful Mail

I mean, I don't expect you to be as hardcore RPG fans as myself to remember (much less play or own) all of those. But christ ppl, this was a major player just a few years ago.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to hit the corner store to buy a 40oz.

noxa

12-13-2005, 12:10 PM

Noxa
You bought a 360 at launch and you only play rpgs?

No, I didn't buy one. I meant I won't if it doesn't have a genre of games I like.

Carnisaur

12-13-2005, 12:49 PM

Rirath

12-13-2005, 12:57 PM

My copy of Lunar included a making of movie, a soundtrack CD, a pendant (from the game), and a cloth map; and this was for $40!

I have the cloth map on my wall (along with Morrowind and Baldur's Gate 2 maps) and the hardcover, full color, foil embroidered instruction booklet /still/ sits proudly to the left of my monitor.

see colon

12-13-2005, 01:54 PM

Popful Mail
i have no pie for you, flabby bottoms!

Crabby

12-13-2005, 01:57 PM

R.I.P. any hope for more Growlanser ports.

F3nyx

12-13-2005, 01:58 PM

please let them know that YOU WANT MORE JRPGs hereHahahahah, no.

see colon

12-13-2005, 01:59 PM

BTW, i'm in the camp that believes this is karma for trying to poke sega in the exit-hole. i'm going to miss them, they did a fine job on everything they touched, but i think ego got the best of them in the end.

Dariath

12-13-2005, 02:18 PM

WD are legendary by the fact that they gave you so much when you bought a special edition. No one has come close to comparing to them, and Lunar and Lunar 2 were huge games in my life. Iron Storm and Dragon Force were incredible, and over all it's a damned shame they are gone. No other company will care as much as they have about their product and their fans.

Kelegacy

12-13-2005, 02:23 PM

Deadend

12-13-2005, 02:28 PM

Sometimes, I thought they might have changed games a little too much. I still think I got a couple games they published though. Sad to see them go, but glad their legacy lives on.

Heretic Machine

12-13-2005, 02:37 PM

I've argued this before, but what it comes down to is that you're wrong. A JRPG is simply a different GM style then a western RPG when going PnP. Just because YOU haven't played in that style of a PnP RPG before doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

...NO IT'S FUCKING NOT YOU DUMBASS!

Look, this has NOTHING to do with PnP gaming. This has to do with the utter lack of ROLE-PLAYING in J-RPG's. You don't make any more decisions in a J-RPG than you do in a friggin rail shooter. Do you consider watching a movie or reading a book to be a valid role-playing experience? Because let me tell you, it isn't, and it doesn't matter how much you like them because they still aren't role-playing games.

For it to be a role-playing game, it would at the very least have to present you with a few choices every now and then. I don't just mean dialog options that have no effect on the game either, I'm talking about real choices, that have real effects on the rest of the game.

Kelegacy

12-13-2005, 02:50 PM

Again, it all depends on what you define Role Playing as. Some people believe it is actually shaping and changing the world through your decisions. Some people think it's just taking on the role of another character (hence, role-play), but in this regard Halo could be an RPG. I agree JRPGs are often times more linear and story focused than other games of the genre, with sometimes minimal interactivity. But for some reason I still call them RPGs.

The reason JRPGs have the J in them is to differentiate them from other types of RPGs. They are an entirely different breed. I don't know what you'd call them if you didn't call them RPGs.

I could say that PnP isn't Role Playing at all, it's a bunch of fat sweaty undersexed guys eating Doritos and in their mother's basement, pretending to be wizards and barbarian warriors. I could call that utter delusion, not gaming. But I wouldn't do that because under the RPG sun, all games are created equal. :)

Heretic Machine

12-13-2005, 03:10 PM

Again, it all depends on what you define Role Playing as.

No, it depends on what the actual definition of role-playing (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=role-playing) is, and let me tell you, it's not listening to a story.

pretending to be wizards and barbarian warriors.

That's what makes it role-playing...

Now the name isn't what pisses me off about the genre, that's just a personal beef. What turned me off of the genre after about halfway through the PS1 era was the fact that JRPG's just became a way to pass off terrible anime scripts at $50 a pop, in an even less artistic form. At one time JRPG's didn't just feel like playing an anime, FF6, FF4, Chrono Trigger, Bahamut Lagoon, the old Dragon Warrior games... those didn't feel like playing bad anime. I don't know why it changed, but it did, and I no longer enjoy the genre. I still play the games that come out and feel even slightly original, like Suikoden... but I can't bring myself to buy Generic Anime Game #112. Just another shitty side-effect of the North American Anime Explosion...

see colon

12-13-2005, 03:18 PM

No, it depends on what the actual definition of role-playing (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=role-playing) is, and let me tell you, it's not listening to a story.
by definition, no videogame is role playing... unless you are playing the role of a videogame player or button pusher.

Last of the Red Hot Mamas

12-13-2005, 03:36 PM

They ruined the U.S. version of Silhouette Mirage.

NEVER FORGIVE, NEVER FORGET

Heretic Machine

12-13-2005, 03:41 PM

by definition, no videogame is role playing... unless you are playing the role of a videogame player or button pusher.

MMORPG's, and many Western RPG's (not all games that are labeled as RPG's are) are very much role-playing games. As long as you get to become the character, rather than just observe the character, then you are roleplaying.

Zurik

12-13-2005, 04:55 PM

It sucks that these people lost their jobs, but I'd like to make one thing clear: I DON'T WANT ANYMORE J-RPG'S HERE!

I'm so glad you don't speak for the rest of us.

Achilles

12-13-2005, 05:45 PM

"Working Designs"? Ha yes I remember these guys... they refused to port anything to Saturn. Looks like they were killed by the JRPG apathy in the West.They ported Rayearth to Saturn didn't they? I believe they also ported over that WW2 Advanced Wars-esque game. They had a couple different names; one for action games, one for RPGs.

I liked Working Designs a lot. Their translations and voice acting had more care taken with them than any other company, including the ones that do their own translations and voice acting like Square. Unfortunatly it always took them about 4 years to release a game. I should have bought their last game back when it would have meant something.

I did buy Growlanser when it was new, I just didn't buy Arc the Lad.

Last of the Red Hot Mamas

12-13-2005, 05:52 PM

They did a few games for the Saturn before switching to the Playstation because Sega gave them a lousy spot at E3 1997. It was kinda pathetic.

Achilles

12-13-2005, 05:53 PM

Get used to this kind of stuff happening in the next few years. The new generation of consoles is going to kill off a lot more of these niche devs and publishers that can no longer afford to release games with little mainstream appeal. I'm not going to work myself up over this one, because the next is probably going to be worse.I don’t know if this is a good example of that theory Carnisaur. WD was a port house, it wouldn’t be impacted at all by the extra cost of development since all they’re doing is localizing the text and replacing the voice clips.

And Elemental Gearbolt was the best lightgun game ever. The more I think about this closing the more depressing it becomes.They did a few games for the Saturn before switching to the Playstation because Sega gave them a lousy spot at E3 1997. It was kinda pathetic.I don’t know about that. Rayearth was released in Dec 1998, which was long after the Saturn was dead. The fact that they were the last game released in the US for the system doesn’t seem to indicate that they abandoned it.

Last of the Red Hot Mamas

12-13-2005, 06:50 PM

http://www.eidolons-inn.net/segabase/SegaBase-Saturn(Part2).html

Due to a series of events and misunderstandings concerning scheduling and booth space that still raise the ire of the principals involved, Working Designs did not get the large area within Sega's E3 booth that it had thought it was supposed to receive. Instead, it was relegated to a small space in the back corner where hardly anybody could find them. Victor Ireland, the president of Working Designs, had already developed a personal dislike for Sega of America president Bernie Stolar going back to the latter's days with Sony due to his brusque manner and dismissal of "non-mainstream games" (i.e. RPGs) as largely unprofitable. He took personally the treatment his company received at E3, perceiving it to be a direct insult levied by Stolar himself, and promptly announced that Working Designs would no longer support any Sega platform so long as Stolar remained in Sega's employ. Stolar remained unpreturbed, but Saturn RPG fans went berzerk at the news. While Working Designs was still committed to release the long-delayed RPG Magic Knight Rayearth for Saturn, it had abruptly cancelled its work on the Saturn port of Lunar Silver Star Story Complete even though the game was reportedly nearing completion. Instead, it was jumping ship into Sony's camp as fast as it could and would release Lunar SSC for PlayStation instead.

Achilles

12-13-2005, 06:57 PM

http://www.eidolons-inn.net/segabase/SegaBase-Saturn(Part2).htmlInteresting. I'm actually glad that went down since Saturn was pushing up daisies at that point and I did end up buying Silver Star Stories for PS, where it got a very good translation.

Banacek

12-13-2005, 07:37 PM

...NO IT'S FUCKING NOT YOU DUMBASS!

Whoever put all that sand in Perigon's vagina please help him clean it out. Thank you!

Banacek

12-13-2005, 07:41 PM

The fact that they were the last game released in the US for the system doesn’t seem to indicate that they abandoned it.

Um, I'm pretty sure Victor Ireland personally has bashed Sega a few times, but I can't seem to find the articles right now, so maybe I'm remembering it wrong...

Heretic Machine

12-13-2005, 07:50 PM

Whoever put all that sand in Perigon's vagina please help him clean it out. Thank you!

HAHAHAHA! He watches South Park, isn't he so interesting and funny... ;)

see colon

12-13-2005, 07:52 PM

Um, I'm pretty sure Victor Ireland personally has bashed Sega a few times, but I can't seem to find the articles right now, so maybe I'm remembering it wrong...
and now he's bashing sony. hmmm....

Tohoya

12-13-2005, 07:59 PM

...NO IT'S FUCKING NOT YOU DUMBASS!

Look, this has NOTHING to do with PnP gaming. This has to do with the utter lack of ROLE-PLAYING in J-RPG's. You don't make any more decisions in a J-RPG than you do in a friggin rail shooter. Do you consider watching a movie or reading a book to be a valid role-playing experience? Because let me tell you, it isn't, and it doesn't matter how much you like them because they still aren't role-playing games.

For it to be a role-playing game, it would at the very least have to present you with a few choices every now and then. I don't just mean dialog options that have no effect on the game either, I'm talking about real choices, that have real effects on the rest of the game.

Err, why do you care so much?

Look, I'm not a fan of free-roaming games like GTA, but you won't hear me trolling in an EA topic about a GTA-clone "NO MORE GTA CLONES!" If you don't like the type of game, just ignore the thread.

Gil

12-13-2005, 08:01 PM

They ruined the U.S. version of Silhouette Mirage.

NEVER FORGIVE, NEVER FORGET

Damn. You beat me to it. I'm still mad at them for that. I actually bought a Gameshark so I could alter the game enough the salvage it.

Banacek

12-13-2005, 08:08 PM

HAHAHAHA! He watches South Park, isn't he so interesting and funny... ;)

Indeed I do sir, indeed I do... :)

Spigot

12-14-2005, 03:56 AM

Working Designs was an awesome company when it came to publishing those JRPG's that were off the beaten track. They did a great job with localization and often included a lot of extras in the packaging for the fans. This is definately sad news for those of us who enjoy JRPG's that don't have a Final Fantasy logo on it.

That said, Atlus sure seems to have taken up the mantle of Working Designs, so maybe it's not THAT sad.