Development
In 2000, Microsoft purchased Bungie Studios, which had previously developed games for Microsoft's main competitor's platform, Apple's Macintosh, in order to have the studio develop Halo exclusively for Microsoft's new Xbox game console. Early development versions of Halo resembled a sci-fi clone of one of Bungie's other franchises, Myth. As part of the sale of Bungie, the rights to the Oni and the Myth series went to the video game publisher Take-Two Interactive who were held a large share of the studio's stocks at the time of the sale. Take-Two hired the startup company MumboJumbo to develop Myth III based on Myth II's code. MumoJumbo was founded by employees that left Ritual Entertainment and Myth III would be the first game they created. Take-Two also hired many talented members of Myth II: Soulblighter's modding community to work on both expansions for Myth II and the new Myth III.
The developers made significant changes to the existing code to improve the game's visual aesthetics including the removal of bump mapping which would no longer be required with the increases made to the game's texture quality. The new engine also sported full 3D characters each with 300 to 800 polygons and at least 13 different animations, unlike its predecessor which relied on sprites for characters and animations. Soon before the game's release, PC Gamer's staff writer Jim Preston wrote that he was skeptical as to whether the developer had been given enough time to satisfactorily complete the game.
The developers worked to support the modding community by taking Fear & Loathing, the application used to create mods for the previous games, and creating a new, easier to use application known as Vengeance.
After Myth III was rushed into the shops, Take2 stopped all development and support for all three Myth games. But thanks to lead developer Andrew Meggs, a group of Myth fans who called themselves "Myth Developers" were given access to the source code by Take 2, and have taken it upon themselves to keep the series up to date. This group, and successor groups under other names, have continued to support and develop all three games without compensation. These groups have updated the software for the latest operating systems, fixed various bugs, and added various enhancements and features to both the games themselves and the mapmaking tools. The current Myth development group is Project Magma.
Read more about this topic: Myth III: The Wolf Age
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