In the wonderful world of coin-op game development, it is very rare that we will hear much about the development of a new title until it is practically ready to hit the streets. That 
has loosened up ever so slightly over the past couple of years but still developers remain very tight-lipped about their project prior to release. This of course is out of nature of the industry, with so few developers out there, no one wants to give away an advantage as to what they are working on.
So it comes as a surprise to me about the news that Incredible Technologies is beginning the development of a new title and they are allowing the project manager, Alan Noon, to blog about the game development process as it takes place. I cannot recall this level of openness towards a coin-op project so it will be very fascinating to watch it unfold. Naturally they will not be open about everything on the project – quoting from the blog where this will unfold: “The coin op industry is highly competitive and extremely fleet. Should the game be revealed too early, it is possible that it could be beaten to market. With that in mind, I will not be talking directly about the specifics of the game play or even the genre the game falls under for a period of time.” But they plan to:” …update the blog twice a week with behind the scenes information and commentary. I will talk about the process of building a game start to finish: from the original germ of the idea all the way to bringing the final product to market. Look for interviews and guest pieces from members of the team, discussions regarding the decisions concerning the game we are making and why, and maybe even a coin op history lesson or two along the way.”
So far if you read over the some of the posts on the project, the game will involve a new kind of controller but we will have to wait and see what is exactly different about it. Still, I will certainly be keeping an eye on this as the project unfolds and will let you know about any major developments in the game.
You can follow the progress here, at Alan Noon’s blog.
I assume this isn’t golf-related, since they’re making announcements and stuff on Golden Tee 2010.
I was looking at Mr. Noon’s gaming resumé and it includes games like F.E.A.R. and MechAssault 2. Unless he is bringing Atari’s Ninja Golf back from the dead then so far it sounds like something new.
I’m guessing it’s a first/third person shooter, then.
Maybe, I have wondered that myself. IT has created a couple of non-sports games before although it has been a little while. Where they are allowing the project manager to be open about the game prior to release like this, I am guessing/hoping that it will be something different.