Today Remedy paid tribute on social media to Max Payne, to celebrate seventeen years since the game launched.
There's already been a number of amazing tributes and memories posted in response to the post, and we'll be collecting a number of them in a special community tribute post tomorrow. But today, to celebrate the occasion, here's a list of five facts about the development history and the game that you may not have known about.
1. Getting It Just Right
After the release of Death Rally, the small Espoo-based team began work on their next project, but it wasn't the Max Payne we all know now. In the "Seven Years of Max Payne" GDC talk back in 2004, Markus Mäki revealed that for a time the studio was looking at developing a truck war game, originally titled Dark Justice. It wasn't just an idea on paper, by November 1996, there was actually a concept demo. There were also discussions about the next project being a space simulator, or an action RPG game similar to the Zelda franchise.
2. Remedy's New Look
It was during Max Payne that Remedy became a studio, and one public change was the logo. On 29th April 1999, while Remedy was working full speed on Max Payne, they also announced a new look for their studio. While a new logo had been on the books for a while, the push to design a new one came in the form of LucasArts who contacted Remedy comparing the two company's logos. The new logo was designed by artist Kiia Kallio, and created the foundations of the studio's look and feel.
3. First Came The Deal, Then Came Max Payne II
After Max Payne was launched, Take Two purchased the Max Payne IP from Remedy and Apogee, announcing the deal in a press release in May 2002. The business deal bought the companies $10 million, 969,932 shares of restricted common stock, and "certain future development incentives". The press release also goes onto detail that Remedy would be developing the Max Payne sequel.
4. Make It So
Star Trek was a source of inspiration for Quantum Break, mentioned in Game Informer's month-long coverage (archived), but the long-running science fiction show actually made an earlier appearance (of sorts) seventeen years ago. A television show called The Void can be viewed in Alfred Woden's private bunker, that nerd. The script is full of references to The Original Series, The Next Generation, and the movies, those nerds. If you missed it, you can catch it, HERE.
5. Hand Drawn Graphic Novels
Early concepts of Max Payne featured hand drawn graphic novels by the game's artist, Kiia Kallio. Photographs were originally used as reference for the artwork, but as development continued, the team embraced photo manipulation to bring increased realism and speed to the production.
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| The original Remedy logo, used between 1995-1999. The redesign was announced in 1999 and is still used today. |
Happy Anniversary, Max Payne!
For more facts about the game and its development process, check out our retrospective of the game, HERE.
