The History of Creative Assembly (Total War / Alien Isolation) - Documentary
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 พ.ค. 2020
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Over the course of three decades Creative Assembly has grown from a one-man-band to one of the largest studios in the UK. In this documentary Chris Bratt tells the story of the games they've made, and the people behind them.
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Hosted by Chris Bratt (@bratterz)
Edited by Danny O'Dwyer
Filmed & Colored by Jeremy Jayne
Gameplay Capture by Frank Howley
Closed Captions: Megan Carnes - เกม
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Done!
"what are you ashamed of?" he asked a guy who lost all what he worked for in his life in one day. Rare display of empathy from a brithish journalist, i guess.
Way ahead of you. Subbed to his stuff ages ago 😁 Chris is brilliant. I hope you have him back again. I really would love if you got him to talk to the guys at Playtonic. Because I'd love to see a doc about the history of Rare, since it's most of the original team.
Next series can you work Grinding Gear Games? Get and inside look on how they developing big expansion/leagues every 3 months for their game Path of Exile, thanks for making these videos too
@@deadwolf2978 that was most stupidest question
The interview with Tim Ansell is very well done and also very touching.
It was very touching and I can relate to it. I got burnt out being in a very nasty business for many years and one day I decided to just sell up and get out as I had enough. I went into a completely different business and I am much happier now; like Tim I don't know anyone from that previous life.
Agree, really good job Chris with the interview. It was nice to see the airtime given to his personal feelings rather than restricting it to the company, he clearly regrets some decisions and something like this has allowed him to set the record straight.
I know right, touching stuff
Yeah agreed!
Yea that was what carried the entire thing. The rest was a lot less interesting.
The interview with the founder is the most real interview I've ever seen
That's a little sad. Are you 12 years old?
@@moserfugger6363 please try actually watching the interview...
Look out for subjects like guilt, divorce, pressure of responsibility, creative burnout, suicidal depression, etc.
So if all you're here for is to try to belittle someone else in order to feed your own sick and pointless existence, then please stop shit posting your useless opinions on subjects of which you have zero knowledge and understanding.
@@drevonthief
Just watch some more classic interviews, Drevon. I recommend interviews from the 70s and 80s. Get out of your bubble.
9:38 "Forgive me for the dip in quality of the camera footage" *proceeds to show beautiful panorama of Tuscany, followed by great establishing shots*
I saw it on 480p mostly due to, you know, mobile internet quota limitation... So I also didnt feel much the dip on quality (if its any) like Chris mentioned
Exact thoughts, haha.
when he say that it think it will became a skype meeting bc the corona hahaha
The shots in the city street had some ladies looking weirdly at the camera & the shot of Tim Ansell was perhaps not framed ideally & the whites were blown out.
Not awful at all, but definitely a quality drop from the usually amazing high standards for docos on this channel. Many people don't notice the finer details of this craft, but for those that do, this little apology lets us know their standards are only momentarily dropping.
😆 EXACTLY what I thought as that happened. To be fair, I prefer that over a massively self centred "look at me and how awesome I am" approach which seems to be so common on TH-cam and other platforms these days.
Hello everyone, Chris here! I'm so proud to be hosting a documentary on this channel, especially given that it tells the story of one of my very favourite studios. Noclip has been a huge inspiration for what we do at People Make Games and in fact, a conversation with Danny a couple of years ago was instrumental in giving me the nudge I needed to leave my old job at Eurogamer and take the plunge for myself. Thanks again for that and now, for letting me take a swing at something as ambitious as this. I hope it's up to scratch :)
P.S. At the beginning of this video, I mention how bad the weather is in England, despite it looking like an entirely normal day. THIS IS NOT TRUE, YOUR EYES ARE BEING DECEIVED. Jeremy and I were being rained on at the time, you just can't see it in the footage... I wasn't just being an awful British stereotype. Oh god, is this making it worse? I'm going to stop typing now. Enjoy!
Ya done good!
Bratterz!
Great to see the strategy king unleashed again 👍
Brilliant doc so interesting! hope you get to work with No clip more often chris!
When we see Danny making PMG video?
That interview with Tim Ansell is so sad. Especially when he acts casual about not being invited to the 25 year anniversary.
I really hope that he can make amends, his input into the games at CA shows, for sure. I really empathise with his reasoning, it must have been tough.
Great documentary. Subscribed.
Yep. Two other very sad points in this documentary. At 9.20 where the cameraman misses out on the trip to interview Tim, then the titles come up and we realise its in Tuscany. That plus the comment about the view from Tim's house at 50.57 Bet Jeremy and Tim's ex-wife were gutted.
Facts ❤
As someone with anxiety and depression and who has lost a job because of it, I completely empathize with Tim.
I couldn't speak with my coworkers because of how embarrassed I felt and I've never heard from them since.
I'm glad he's gotten passed that patch of his life, and I hope he gets the chance to reconcile with his friends at the studio in the future.
Had to redo a year at college due to depression and heavy anxiety attacks; your world just crumbles. Like a slow-motion car accident, except you can not do much until you hit rock bottom. Hang in there, mate. I know its a cliché, but slow steps forward make the difference.
No feeling is final if we try to keep on going. Cheers from Argentina, mate
@@dinerenblancc That's an incredibly hollow assumption.
@@prostheticcat8574 People being cynical in youtube comment section. I wouldn't worry about it.
It's hard man. Been there, done that. I simply can't return back. Just thinking about that period of my life makes me physically sick. You know how some anxiety symptoms can be treated by "doing it" and finding out it's actually fine? With this kinda stuff there is very high chance (from personal experience) you will only make sure it's as bad as you imagined and hurt yourself even more.
The interview with Tim Ansell is great because it touches topics that are rarely so openly discussed. One importaint thing to note about Tim Ansell's story that the doc obviously can't cover is the historical context and how his burnout was too common.Tim reaching his breaking point and the the acquisition of CA by Sega is happening within a year of Erin Hoffman writing the "EA Spouse" blog post that exposed E.A's reliance on overworking employees which led to several class action law suits against the company, and eventually to E.A largely revamping their views and becoming a much much better company to work for.
I still feel they didn't get enough credit for Alien: Isolation, someone finally did the franchise justice and a lot of people were turned away by IGNs awful review.
With time people are getting around to praise it more. Sadly it suffered the same fate as God Hand, a bad IGN review, plus people burned out thanks to Colonial Marines.
Can't spell ignorant without IGN.
@@100HourGameplay hahah good one
They didn’t get enough credit in this video. Why wasn’t it covered more?
I just bought it, and am doing a little searching around..
There are mods available to play it in VR and bring the textures up to modern spec. Should be downright terrifying! I'm looking forward to my play-through.
They didn't invite me either Tim, but I only did 14+ years :(
I am really grateful that Tim Ansell talked about the extreme stress caused by balancing work and personal life, especially when you feel responsible for the livelihoods of so many other people. I'm also glad he talked about how it caused him to feel depressed to the point that he had thoughts of suicide - not just once, but three separate times. It sounds like he did the right thing by changing his life, and it's so sad that the transition was so rocky and isolating.
It's a good reminder that human beings work create the games we love. People send death threats when a Pokemon isn't included in a game; they whine endlessly when a game is delayed a month. We need to be more respectful and sensitive to the people making the games we love.
CA really is the gold standard of strategy games. The British should be proud.
On a sidenote, Tim's story is a little heartbreaking. I hope he can make peace with it one day.
The AI needs work, though.
Also, the quality of Alien: Isolation was staggering considering it's their only first person game. There must be a lot of talent at CA.
Big thanks for doing this documentary and to Tim Ansell for sharing his story. His work is an inspiration to me and he shared some hard lessons for anyone going down a similar path.
The Ansell interview part was great. This is the sort of thing this channel provides that no other channel does; the story of the person behind the developer.
Damn I do feel bad for Tim. I don't know him, I don't follow CA either but I do know how bad the stress and frustration takes it toll on one's mental health.
Where is he working now? I wish the man best of luck in his remaining life and hope he and CA patch things up.
He may not work, selling a company of that size could give you the funds to last a lifetime.
"one that wasnt going well wasnt colonial marines. How bad was it" Wow, that was deserved but brutal.
was probably Obsidian's Aliens: Crucible
Did anyone else smell sulphur? Cos I gotta say that was a sick burn when he said that.
Clive never did pull his punches :)
Well if Crucible was the game in mention, then that remark was out of place. It wasn´t going well only on a publisher-developer relationship level. Picky Sega bastards...
To be honest, SEGA thought Colonial Marines was good to launch so they clearly weren't reliable on their assessments. Maybe Obsidian was more frank while Gearbox gave them the sweet talk, big projects can be very influenced by those involved. If someone in any of the companies involved gets off to a bad start in their relationship with another it can really turn things sour. This is a bit of projection from my experience, but think of Cain and Abel, some people undersell their projects and lose their chance while others focus on cosmetic delivery to end up delivering an inferior end product.
24:12 Legit I connected withTim it must be so heartbreaking to be burntout and overworked and still wanting to be there but all he wanted was a break. Such a shame. It will forever be hidden that the initial backbone of the industry was built on broken relationships and long nights away from loved ones. No one not even me knew how much sacrifice you need to endure when wanting to work in this industry
Such an amazing experience to be involved in the documentary - thank you all for coming and making it. As a NoClip fan from the start it was an amazing experience to see the behind the scenes of how one of these were made. The documentary has turned out beautifully too - I hope everyone else enjoys it as much as I did! (I also even get into the credits in the special thanks... I never imagined the day I'd see my name at the end of a NoClip doc!)
Thank you for this candid look behind a studio that has been beyond inspiring to me over the last twenty years. It's fantastic to see both the ambitiousness and resolve through the development process. So proud of Creative Assembly as a Brit - please keep fulfilling our escapist fantasies.
QuickyBaby Didn’t expect to see a QB comment here.
As a fan since Shogun, this was an amazing documentary, CA's impact has been profound over the years. The introspective with founder Tim Ansell was deeply moving, it's great he was able to share his story.
I hope Ansell is doing well. He seems like good people.
I’ve never played a total war game, never even played a Creative Assembly game, but Tim Ansell inspires me to create things. Hope he’s doing well.
What a fascinating Tim Ansell interview. One of the underrated greats of the industry.
As an Alien and survival horror fan, I loved Alien: Isolation. The anxiety it brought was amazing, haha. Hope there's a sequel in the same style and universe someday.
Wow, Chris in a NoClip documentary? This is a dream I didn't know I had come true.
I disagree - sorry but the Irish narration is so much better
@@titaniumapple1 OK, I do not know how this correlates with the fact that Chris is one of my favorites creators, and seeing him cooperate with Danny is exciting to me; but OK, good for you I guess.
I came over from People Make Games. Good video with a lot of substance to it. Tim Ansell's interview in particular stands out: any one of those events would have been stressful on its own, let alone many things happening at once. Having to navigate all of that must have been intense if not overwhelming. It really humanises the story to hear his experiences. It's interesting to get a sense of how everything came together in the development of the game, but that part of the video is a good reminder that it's human beings making these things, and we can all stand to find compassion for the stresses that may take place behind the scenes.
Thank you Chris, Danny & Jeremy, something even more special than usual about this one. Here's hoping Tim does pop back in there one day.
That interview with Tim was very well done.
Why of all places Horsham. I completely forgot that they did Alien Isolation. That game is so good than many hardcore Aliens fans regard its' content as canon for the lore. Pity that Journey To The West game was never made; I would have made it trippy and funky like 1980s Monkey! (magic) TV series.
There is "Enslaved: Odyssey to the West" made by Ninja Theory. Andy Serkis plays the "monkey".
@@SuperHansimann I remember Enslaved, it was meant to be a sleeper hit but never took the plunge. Now I know it's a take on Monkey! I may have to see if it's downloadable or obtainable on my
PS3 / XBox 360
@WZRD have to dust off my xbox one then
@@davedogge2280 it's fairly cheap on steam if you got a PC
@@SuperHansimann Haha. I have lived in Horsham all my life and had no idea. :-)
One thing people who don't follow CA should know is just how involved and wonderful their PR and community managers are. They are informative, listen to the sometimes overbearingly loving community, generous, and actively support the large modding communities. I'll happily support that studio until the end of time. Also, they created a character in Warhammer 2 for a fan who was very sick as a tribute to him through the Make A Wish foundation. AFAIK, the fan got better and is living well to this day.
What a brilliant documentary on Creative Assembly... provided an outsider like myself a far better understanding of the genesis and evolution of this iconic UK games company.
Not unlike Apple computers CA started in a spare bedroom and slowly morphed into a global leader in the games industry .
The integration of the games footage provided a great insight into the massive importance of emerging 3D technology .A strength of the documentary are the personal interviews with the key CA players that capture the ethos of the company and its evolution. However the final interview with Tim Ansell with the serene back ground of Tuscany was empathetic and impactful .
Reflected my own journey ... years of intense accumulation of IP and then total focus in creating a successful team of people. The inevitable compromise of long hours and stress of holding a large team together . Burn out ...depression... divorce...sold my company. Been there and done that . Congratulations Tim on your achievements . You have left a legacy of over five hundred multinational highly creative individuals working in Horsham UK a beautiful market town one hour south of London .I have walked the cobblestoned market streets of Horsham and visited my son Todd who proudly works in a brilliantly creative company . Hopefully CA will reconcile with Tim Ansell which would provide rich rewards for all involved . Regards Dr Ken Marshall Sydney Australia .
Chris, the fact that you mentioned Tim is welcomed back to CA office is a really touching moment, regardless if it was genuine or not. Great documentary as always!
If any of the folk who worked on Alien: Isolation reads this, thank you, Alien: Isolation is one of a kind game, it has that very rare spark of uniqueness. If theres ever a second entry or spiritual sequel i cannot wait to see what you can do with it. Thank you CA.
Disparanoia Thanks!
"The camera quality is going to take a dip, sorry about that"
Immediately gives us an absolutely GORGEOUS shot of the Italian countryside
34:31 I believe the Alien game Mr. Gratton is speaking of that was going "worse than Colonial Marines" was likely Aliens: Crucible, a Aliens RPG being developed by Obsidian. The timeline works out, CA began development of Isolation in 2009, and 2009 was when Crucible was cancelled. And from what I've heard in Obsidian interviews, development was a nightmare. Almost immediately after the cancellation, Bethesda greenlit Fallout: New Vegas. The third game might have been Alien VS Predator with Rebellion, which was announced the same day Crucible was cancelled.
Amazing documentary No Clip! Creative Assembly are one of my all time favorite developers, the first game I played from them was Spartan Total Warrior on PS2, back when I was in school, that game felt amazing, the epic scale of battles, an absolute joy, blew me away. Then I played Viking Battle for Asgard, such a fun game. Really enjoyed it.
Then in 2014 my personal favorite Creative Assembly game came out: Alien Isolation!
Masterpiece game!! Very underrated, my favorite game of 2014, the atmosphere of the game was incredible, Sevastopol Station felt like a real lived in place,while the AI of the Xeno felt like an actual living thing. It captured the feel of the movies perfectly.
Here’s to many more years of amazing games from Creative Assembly.🥂
Oh man, having worked in the Games Industry for the last 14 years the Tim Ansell interview really choked me up. I had to fight back the tears.
By far one of favourite developers of all time. The Total War franchise remains near and dear to me since the original shogun.
The interview with Tim was amazing.
I have to say, the moment i realized that the cities in the battle map are modeled after the cities on the campaign map with all their buildings and cultures i was extremely impressed. I still go back and play Rome Total War because there is so much attention to detail that its hard to leave for too long.
Time and time again, I am blown away not only with the quality of the videos but the topics themselves. Fantastic work.
One of the best yet most bittersweet docs of Noclip to date. Brilliantly done ! Kudos to Chris for hosting this!
Regardless of how he left, it is absolutely heartbreaking that Tim Ansell didn't even get a fucking invitation to the 25th and 30th anniversary of the game studio he single-handedly started! That's just dirty in my opinion, it only seems right to at least extend the offer of an invitation, it was his brain child after all--if he hadn't started it, the games would never have even existed.
Glad he is doing better than he was back then though, it was truly a touching, heartfelt interview. So kudos to you Tim Ansell!
I hope you channel is growing even more, because to be honest you do one of the best quality videos you can find here on TH-cam.
I really enjoy all the interviews that you guys do, that are really well edited and written!
Congrats to you guys for the amazing work you do, and I hope the channel grows even more!
I remember working with Tim. I was with Telecomsoft and I commissioned him to do the PC conversion of "Stunt Car Racer". He was a really nice guy and a hard worker all the best to you mate!
It’s so rare to find someone willing to talk as candidly as Tim Ansell here. This is really wonderful of both him and No Clip; thank you.
Can I say how much I appreciate Chris tracking down Tim Ansell for this documentary? Getting the point of view of the founder (even if it's not the happiest topic) made this hands-down more honest and all-around superior than, say, NoClip's Bethesda fluff piece where Christopher Weaver was barely mentioned, if at all. Fair play to you, Chris.
Total war Shogun 2 is a masterpiece in Total war series.
Great doc. Being from the UK myself really enjoyed seeing a dev team from here. Learned so much about Total War love it.
Alien Isolation is a very good, if slightly flawed, game and it gets more things right than wrong. It also gave me one of the biggest scares of my life. It literally made me jump back in my couch and throw my controller up in the air the first time the Xenomorph killed me. I remember I just laughed out loud after that. The game got me. The game got me real good.
This was amazing...
two amazing channels putting their resources together to make an awesome documentary, sick!
Another great one. Glad I finally made the time to watch this. Thanks.
Was delighted to see you hosting this doc when I fired it up Chris. Your interview style is excellent and seems to disarm the subject and get them talk in ways another interviewer might not be able to. The Tim Ansell interview being a case in point. You're the Louis Theroux of gaming!! ;-)
Creative Assembly, Ensemble Studios, Blizzard Entertainment. these companies were on a roll with great RTS games in the early 2000's, Rome Total War, Age Of Empires 3, Warcraft 3. sadly nowadays you hardly see any RTS in the mainstream, and if you do, most of them are not really memorable. just wish real time strategy games can make a comeback in the industry
TW: Warhammer is probably the biggest RTS title in the mainstream these days, and thanks to the passion the devs have kept at it (and by involving the community). Blizzard took a different path and Ensemble Studios became defunct years ago, CA has kept going strong, leading the charge.
Total War Warhammer might be one of the most liked Warhammer games by the Games Workshop fans, since Dawn of War 1.
There are a lot of warhammer games, but not a lot of good ones. Warhammer 2 (with its mortal empire campaign and its mods) is a reference, and we hope Warhammer 3 will be the endgame of current RTS tabletop simulators.
Like paradox titles, it's years of content put in a single title, with more and more at each expansion/release/DLC. And unlike the three Stacraft 2 games, it's a full campaign with new factions and gameplay every time, not just some rebalance and one or two replaced units.
The RTS genre might not come back, because it's too much investment to play, and the skill is usually too much rewarded (it's strategy after all), but the current Roguelike scene is alive.
I'd love to get a War40k or a Star Wars Total War. And also a return of vehicle/ship battles. I expected to see them with the current game. We all know the Odyssey and picture boats in the trojan war.
What a brilliant, perfectly paced doc. Thanks for making it, PMG/Noclip!
Can’t wait for Alien: Isolation doc!
Such an incredible work! Thanks!
Great documentary and the empathy shown by Chris at the end was great.
I totally get Tim. Severe mental stress, depression, shame. Everyone has their breaking point. The CA management seems to have not been there for him when he needed them.
seemed to me that he was the management, and sega hadn't moved in with it's (corporate) maturity yet at that point
Thanks tim and the staff of CA for creating one of my favorite game series.
This was brilliant! Good journalism all around. Just a pleasure to hear and watch. Kudos do everyone involved.
Such a great doc, Chris has done such a great job. Kudos to Danny for showing off his work.
This was fantastic, love Chris’s work on people make games.
Would love more like this in the future!
Just want to say a big thanks to all of CA for delivering so many amazing games over the years.
I remember spending way too much time as a kid making simple mods for Total War Rome. It was probably one of the main reasons that got me interested in Computer Science.
Big thanks to Tim Ansell, and the rest of the team. You've been an amazing contribution to fun, inspiration, education, and company in my life.
Excellent doc! Interesting stuff. And always like to see you guys and Chris collaborate.
Amazing content as always. Really well rounded and great context for all sides of the conversation. Also can we PLEASE get more Alien Isolation style content PLEASE Creative Assembly!
Right from the opening music , I was hooked . Good job guys !
Thank you very much Mr Bratt and Noclip for making this.
Special thanks for doing the Tim Ansell interview. Essential stuff.
Great documentary Chris! Your love for board games was also evident while watching ;)
Top things I would pay ludicrous money for if CA did them:
- Total War 40k (take TW:WH, introduce a cover system like CoH2, make group sizes more diverse depending on game era/race, change the regions to a star map or a single system and the foundation is there)
- Finish the VR support for Alien Isolation as DLC, or a full on Isolation sequel playable in VR
Dude seeing Ansell be so honest gave me tears, I hope he is doing well!
This was an amazing watch! I'd love to see more documentaries like this about UK studios...
Great video I appreciate your respect for the history of these games, like all other forms of art these things deserve to be remembered and your keeping the memories alive.
Brilliant documentary, excellent production, keep em coming please!
Tim story is pretty sad, though I used to think SEGA forced him out so it's good to know thats not true
SEGA > Activision
why the founder's story decpiet beeing simple, feels at the same time so profound and touching?
An awesome guest doc. Enjoyed this a lot.
I've been waiting for this documentary since it was announced. Total War: Rome was the first RTS I played. I remember being really enthralled with the different types of troops/campaigns. Warhammer 2 is my favorite out of the Total War series. Alien Isolation is still without a doubt the best horror game I have ever played.
BRATTERZ!
34:43 I honestly laughed my bollox off at that comment.
This is very interesting! thank you very much for these documentaries!
This is amazing! People make Games × Noclip
btw. did you know you can link to other channels in video titles now?
Considering how underwatched People make Games is, it might help some people finding a channel they would really enjoy
This was incredible. Thank you
Wow what a great doc and the visit with Tim Ansell was excellent.
Tim Ansell is legit. What a humble and smart guy
man, remember being able to travel from the UK to Italy?
No, too expensive.
poor tim. :(
i love you tim. im so glad to see you got your shit together, no one cares how long it took. i hope youre as happy as you can be, mindful of the circumstance. im proud of you, i love you and it looks like others do too.
Good to see Chris on No Clip. He has been doing some great work on his channel
Great work Chris, really strong emotional documentary that show us that behind every game there is human lives.
Spartan Total Warrior is a gem..perhaps even underrated... it was fun!
Yep, it wasn't a masterpiece, but that kind of game that is solid and distinct enough to give you a worth and enjoyable time. I would said that like that one more than Viking.
This was a very well done video which told a story only a few can understand or just be a part of it.
Loved how the story came about this English company that brought amazing games to everyone around the world.
Quite enjoyed this video, well done Chris and co. Really felt for Tim, tough times to reminisce over.
Once again I find myself wishing there were music credits on these videos, as there were a few times I'd love to search the artist for the music playing in the background (26 minutes for instance).
Man I just wanna cry after seeing the Tim Ansell stuff. Sounds like a great guy.
Alien Isolation was one of my favorite horror games. I hope they'll continue making new incredible games because they're good at it.
Thank you CA, you'll always have a place in my heart
wow this video came
out just an hour before i had the urge to binge watch total war videos cause i suddenly miss playing them
Great documentary! Well done.
Didn't expect to cry. Lovely story with lovely human beings...thank you noclip
Excellent doc, guys. I’ve recently become obsessed with Total War: Warhammer II. Nice to see the history of the company; from Horsham, of all bloody places.
Great documentary. Tim Ansell interview was particularly touching. Honestly I wouldn't be shocked if we see a Lord of the Rings Total War game after Warhammer 3.
I would, wb own the license at the moment and Sega usually contract with creative assembly