Saints Row 1 thru 4 Early Prototype Gameplay and Concepts | Saints Row 4 originally to have Hitler - General

[media]https://youtu.be/bI67ixbubyI[/media] [media]https://youtu.be/XHf2wBVUy18[/media] I was going to make a dedicated thread for my own self promotion content, but this stuff was too interesting not to show off on its own. I discovered a GDC 2015 conference with a lot of early tech demos and concepts from Saints Row 1, 2, 3 and 4 as well as an early tech demo for Red Faction: Guerilla. I looked into some of the subjects talked about and I couldn't find a single source discussing some of the early prototype builds, activities, and concepts. The conference was an hour long so I put the videos together in a short clip and did a small analysis in the second video. [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h4M7zDPg1Y"]You can view the full, original GDC Conference here.[/URL] I reached out to Greg Donovan to hopefully get some follow up questions in regarding some of the subjects. For a huge Saints Row fan like myself, this stuff is incredibly interesting. [B]Saints Row 4 was going to be its own thing without super powers until THQ made the "business decision" to have the best parts of the Enter the Dominatrix DLC put into Saints Row 4. This put a ton of pressure on the team and basically SR4 is an over glorified expansion pack.[/B]

A couple years back Volition also did a live stream showing off prototypes of the games, not sure if they're still archived somewhere.

[QUOTE=Tuskin;53177020]A couple years back Volition also did a live stream showing off prototypes of the games, not sure if they're still archived somewhere.[/QUOTE] Might be referring to Saints Row: Undercover for the PSP?

[QUOTE=redBadger;53177043]Might be referring to Saints Row: Undercover for the PSP?[/QUOTE] I meant archive of the streams. It was the same series of streams though that gave us Undercover however.

[QUOTE=Tuskin;53177046]I meant archive of the streams. It was the same series of streams though that gave us Undercover however.[/QUOTE] Those were the 10th anniversary streams Volition did 1 (going on 2) years ago. They have archives of all their streams, including their own Undercover stream. [video=youtube;GlZOo_HKlCc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlZOo_HKlCc[/video] [video=youtube;CjRwkeM1v8Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjRwkeM1v8Y[/video] [video=youtube;SLHlARcsFB8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLHlARcsFB8[/video] [video=youtube;bXKeOTo9AH0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXKeOTo9AH0[/video]

It's interesting to see the early build of Saint's Row 4 before they changed it to include the aliens.

[QUOTE=redBadger;53177013] [B]Saints Row 4 was going to be its own thing without super powers until THQ made the "business decision" to have the best parts of the Enter the Dominatrix DLC put into Saints Row 4. This put a ton of pressure on the team and basically SR4 is an over glorified expansion pack.[/B][/QUOTE] This was actually known and common knowledge for years.

[QUOTE=DMGaina;53177137]This was actually known and common knowledge for years.[/QUOTE] Yeah I mean I had no idea it was THQ 's decision to do that. Really shows with how little amount of content there was.

[QUOTE=redBadger;53177187]Yeah I mean I had no idea it was THQ 's decision to do that. Really shows with how little amount of content there was.[/QUOTE] Volition have been quite open about "yeah SR4 is just Enter the Dominatrix: The game: The movie of the game: the game". It'd be a weird thing for a developer to insist on cutting corners like this so it's kinda obvious it was a publisher driven decision. Shit there's even a DLC for SR4 that makes fun of this and how it all happened due to executive meddling from the higher ups.

[QUOTE=hexpunK;53177212]Volition have been quite open about "yeah SR4 is just Enter the Dominatrix: The game: The movie of the game: the game". It'd be a weird thing for a developer to insist on cutting corners like this so it's kinda obvious it was a publisher driven decision. Shit there's even a DLC for SR4 that makes fun of this and how it all happened due to executive meddling from the higher ups.[/QUOTE] The whole "cutting corners" thing is even mocked by the end of a mission @ 4:00 [video=youtube;PYohbbhWLec]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYohbbhWLec[/video]

Really cool stuff!

[img]https://i.imgur.com/AJXVc3A.png[/img] Original Saints row 3 map

SR3 and 4 probably would be a lot better if the new map wasn't the most boring thing in the world.

[QUOTE=Zeos;53179605]SR3 and 4 probably would be a lot better if the new map wasn't the most boring thing in the world.[/QUOTE] The map situation is one of the worst things about 3 and 4 to me because after spending time in Stilwater in 2 being impressed with the easter eggs and unique locations on the map like the mall and cave, Steelport is like eating fucking airplane crackers for 24 hours. Everything looks the fucking same. I get lost all the fucking time unless I'm in downtown or right next to shit like the nuclear plant because the buildings are bland as fuck and the landmarks are few in number. Stilwater I could navigate without busting open the map after a while. With Steelport I have my eyes glued to the GPS markers every time I go somewhere. Finding out that 4 was gonna reuse Steelport with the only alterations being some generic Sci-Fi assets pasted in with some ripped buildings and particle effects was crushing.

Shame Volition suffered layoffs. One of the few devs that actively show off stuff going on behind the scenes, and was also really chill with the community.

Saints Row 4 would have been a pretty funy game if it wasn't so ugly to look at. I mean whos idea was it to have the game be a constant shade of dark red? Especially in a wacky GTA clone?

I could have sworn I read an article online about a year or two ago which had said that the wacky route 3 and 4 took was the original intentions for the series. And things like Zombie Carlos as a homie in SR2 were all they were allowed back then. However, what is seen here reveals it wasn't really their intention.

But my Saints Row 4 already had Hitler [T]https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/31855574106997935/1F3874CC250B71669B99E07FD221F799A4243E18/[/T]