User blog:Baziel/Summer 2017: Wiki Style, Omen and the SE Collective?

Again apologies for the late showing, I seem to be getting pushed to bi-annually with these things, even though that's not really what I would have wanted, but when it's time these things have a way of getting away from me. Certainly work continues on the site in the meantime and the wiki rolls on.

To be honest there's perhaps not so much to mention in this edition. Wiki-wise, I've been unsure of where to turn my attentions before eventually settling down to updating some Blood Omen locations and dungeons, leading to completed articles on the Stone Keep, the Lake of the Dead (and its sister article the Abyss), Kain's Mausoleum, the Citadel, the Light dungeon, Wolf Form dungeon, Stun dungeon and the Cemetery.

On top of this there has been a major reorganisation and clean-up drive recently. Perhaps most notably this can be seen in the refreshed front page, but there has also been reworkings on navboxes and categories with many new areas. Some notable updates include new Builds articles on developmental versions, new Navigation categories made up of Walkthrough chapters and a terms Glossary, and many other new improved additions, perhaps too numerous to mention individually. Other things to note include the reorganisation of personnel articles meaning that some of the more minor articles where all that is known are credit information will be removed - if all we can say is "Mr X is credited with Y in game Z" then the credit itself is perhaps enough without having a separate article saying the same thing. This process has culminated in a (slightly enforced) main page and header reorganisation, which has prompted us to do some main page reworkings of our own. Hope you like the new style.

Outside of the wiki, issues with Legacy of Kain have been, well, complex. All seemed quiet and uneventful until early June when artist Paul Scott Canavan published some new concept art for a 2016 project pitch simply called  ' Omen '  which prominently featured artwork of both Kain and Raziel. Investigations subsequently linked Paul's employer  ' Blazing Griffin '  with  ' Quantum Entanglement Entertainment '  - the new company by former Silicon Knights head honcho Denis Dyack (which also lays claim to the development of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain) - although ultimately nothing was found linking the project to IP holders Square Enix. With the interesting prospect of the series creator returning to the franchise nearly 20 years after he was forced to abandon it, hopes were raised for E3 - but the traditional E3 silence continued and the current thinking is that it may have been a project that was speculatively pitched at SE by Dyack and co but was not picked up for whatever reason. Shortly after E3 LoK hit the news in a different way a Square Enix official Phil Elliot (the creator and manager of the SE Collective, which is effectively a Kickstarter platform curated by SE) tweeted “Wonder what the interest in the Legacy of Kain IP would be if we made it available to indies to license” - hinting that SE may be considering putting the IP on the collective or otherwise offering it to other studios. A huge response to the tweet ensued, with interest from Obsidian Entertainment and the teams behind BO1 fan remake  ' Blood Omnicide '  and SR1 fan remake  ' Soul Revenant ' , as well as confirmation that the statement was not linked to the  ' Omen '  pitch. Along with recent news that I/O interactive was dropped by SE and allowed to retain the rights to the  ' Hitman '  IP, it may be that SE are now more open to outside development on their dormant franchises.

We'll post any new leads as we get them, either here or on our Facebook page. Until then, happy editing Baziel (talk) 14:03, June 17, 2017 (UTC)