Development Hell is a term in the gaming industry, to describe the state of development of a game when things can't get worse. Sometimes, games can never get out of this hell, leading to the resignation of leaders like creative directors, studio closures, projects sold to another unit or even lice are completely abolished.
However, there are also many projects that have overcome this hell, becoming an excellent game, meeting the expectations of fans and being appreciated by professionals.
Fallout 3
Did you know that the Fallout 3 version you released in 2008 was not the original version? Actually it's the second Fallout 3 version. This was shared by Obsidian Entertainment's chief executive, Fergus Urquhart, who was then the director of Fallout, to IGN.
Fallout 3, originally codenamed Van Buren, was built in 2D and didn't have the standards that fit a modern AAA game. The developer later realized 3D was a great element and changed and reworked the whole project. Of course, the complete transformation of game making technology led the company to fall into Development Hell, especially when the game publisher at that time Interplay was facing financial difficulties. As a result, the Van Buren project turned into another game.
Meanwhile, Interplay filed for bankruptcy, Black Isle Studios has closed. Fallout 3 rights were sold to Bethesda and became the game gamers knew about. Fallout 3 is also rated as one of Bethesda's best games.
Team Fortress 2
One thing that is quite unbelievable is that Team Fortress 2 has been introduced since . 1998. The turning point of this project, however, was when Valve announced it would convert the graphics engine into what they developed: Source. Of course, converting the entire engine is not easy and it has brought Valve's project to hell. 6 years later, fans still have not heard anything about this game and everyone thought it was dead.
But in fact, Team Fortress 2 never died, the game turned out to be much more alive, much more mature than anyone expected. According to Kotaku, Team Fortress 2 must have undergone three to four remakes to be even better. Finally, the game was released in 2007 and became one of Valve's best first-person shooters.
LA Noire
Developed by Team Bondi and released on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC in 2011, LA Noire of Rockstar Games has received a warm reception from both professionals and the gaming community. This is also a remarkable commercial success of Rockstar. However, to achieve this success, the project had to undergo 7 years of development in hardship.
LA Noire was originally planned to be released by Sony Computer Entertainment America, but they abandoned the project when Team Bondi's head, Brenda McNamara, allegedly spent tens of millions of dollars on proprietary technology within a year. For Sony, a year is a very short period of time for such a huge number of limbs. Finally, in 2005, Sony abandoned this project.
LA Noire then found a new publisher in 2006: Rockstar Games. The company has poured a lot of money into the project and . continue to delay for another 4 times. However, after the game launched, the reputation of Team Bondi and Brendan McNamara was permanently destroyed. Many individuals involved in the development of LA Noire have made allegations of terrible working conditions at the studio.
Before the great reputation of Team Bondi, Rockstar immediately had to cut ties with the developer to avoid spreading bad influence. Finally, just a few months after LA Noire's release, Team Bondi was liquidated.
Diablo III
Diablo II was too successful, becoming one of the most popular games of all time. However, that success has become a pressure ghost for Diablo III project . It took more than a decade, exactly 12 years, for Blizzard Entertainment to realize this project.
According to Josh Mosqueira from Blizzard, the pressure of success from Diablo II weighs heavily on the development team and affects many development decisions. It's like a ghost that makes people feel scared. That's why Diablo III falls into Development Hell. Even after a decade of hard work and effort, Diablo III still encountered a lot of serious bugs upon release. The developer probably had to make eight major patches for the game.
However, after all the hardships, Diablo III also had certain successes. Blizzard was wise to make a subtle apology to the fans. They have put on a secret game called Hell Hell, players can slaughter the zombies named after the names of the people in the developer.
Alan Wake
Published in 2005, but not released until 2010, Alan Wake is also a game that has risen from the development hell, achieving fan expectations. The reason why Remedy Entertainment had difficulty developing Alan Wake was because they could not find any graphics engine that could meet the requirements of the game. Therefore, even with only 45 people, Remedy decided to make his own graphics engine. But that decision also made the time to develop Alan Wake difficult.
'We are just a very small studio, with about 45 people. And for such a small team, it takes a lot of time to complete a big project. You also know we're not a game company that can produce games every year or every two years. We carefully develop our games and intellectual property so that it is worthy for a long time. '
With only about 45 people Remedy can create a new engine, just finish Alan Wake is indeed very commendable.
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