Matt Tieger has decided that what he wants in his next game is a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex from outer space who fights with a sword and a shield and breaths fire. And is a robot.
What he wants, in other words, is Grimlock, the Dinobot. All that stands in his way is the company who owns the Transformers, Hasbro, and they've decided that Grimlock (and the rest of the Dinobots) are being retired.
According to Hasbro, the Dinobots will not be in any Transformers movies. They will not be in any Transformers games. They will not be in any Transformers anything. They are finished.
The people at Hasbro, in other words, tell Tieger that Grimlock will be done away with.
This is the story of how he tried to change their mind.
Matt Tieger wanted to be a paleontologist when he grew up. And a marine biologist. And an artist. But mainly: Paleontologist. He loved dinosaurs. Knew all of their names. He wanted to dig their bones out of the Earth and tell their stories.
By the time he went to college, he'd changed his mind. He wanted to be a marine biologist again. He studied marine biology. Then, just shy of a Ph.D from Rutgers, he changed his mind yet again and left to make videogames.
Now Tieger works as Game Director for High Moon Studios, the company behind 2010's Transformers: War for Cybertron. For Matt, it is the best job in the world. Particularly because he is now in charge.
His new game is the sequel to War for Cybertron, Fall of Cybertron, and what Tieger wants more than anything is to let players be the leader of the Dinobots.
"As a fan of Transformers," Tieger told Polygon, by phone. "Grimlock is, if not my favorite, in my top three favorite Transformers of all time.
Also included in this article is the origins of the Dinobots in Fall of Cybertron, and anyone who has read SPOTLIGHT: SHOCKWAVE, will know just where this is headed:
As Tieger explains it, it goes like this: "It's all about loyalty in the Decepticon.
"Megatron is obviously in charge of the Decepticons, [and has] three lieutenants: Shockwave, Soundwave and Starscream (which by the way is very confusing to people who are not big Transformers fans because they're all Ss), but it's all about loyalty.
"Soundwave is loyal to Megatron above all things.
"Starscream is loyal to Starscream above all things.
"Shockwave is loyal to Cybertron above all things.
"So Shockwave's plan is:
"'We're not going to leave Cybertron. I'm going to save it. I'm going to search the cosmos, find a world that is teeming with what I can covert into Energon (the Transformers energy source). And I'm going to suck that planet dry and ... use it to reboot my home.'"
This is a thorough article packed with Dino-information. A great read for Transformer and video game fans alike. Check out this full article by clicking HERE.
Along with the write up are dozens of concept art, reference pictures used by the design team and artwork used to pitch the idea of Dinobots in this game to Hasbro. Mirrored below are some of the new Dino screen shots and concept designs. Click on any image to be taken to the full article.
