On the Irrational Games shift & general game development

Off-topic
#1

For those of you who may have followed things about Irrational’s significant changes, this story fills in a whole lot of blanks when it comes to what led to it. A very interesting read for the recent history there, but also for a look at the development crunch and how much it eats up people’s lives at times just to get a game out. That, while also combined with a guy in Ken Levine who is a very particular sort of personality.

The final years of Irrational Games, according to those who were there

#2

Meh. The Bioshlok product was flawed from the start. That they kept grinding out further revisions was telling.

Some ways down from System Shock.

1 Like
#3

The opinion of the game itself is not exactly what this is about. It’s larger than that.

#4

Sure. But their future was tied quite closely to it, they buried resource in hammering out another generic revision of it all in the guise of revolutionary innovation…

1 Like
#5

If their future was tied to it, then it ought to have been a bright one because the BioShock games have been very successful. BioShock Infinite itself was just fine overall as a game.

#6

It tanked, so by definition, not fine.

On a personal note, none of their games amused me… dull, generic, played out… safe… protagonists you couldn’t care about and very little in the way of replayability… completely ignoring the console-fied aggravation of the UI…

All of which is shocking when considering what they achieved with SS… :frowning:

1 Like
#7

Very nice article, definitely thought provoking, the comments as well.
Irrational games hmm, maybe that comes from their irrationally good quality?

#8

How do you determine it tanked? It received numerous nominations and accolades, was the third-highest rated game of 2013, consistently averaging at least 90% or better by reviewers and a bit over 85% by gamers depending on where you look, and while I don’t think we know exactly what it cost the game sold in the area of 3 million copies and undoubtedly turned a profit. Sure, it didn’t sell as many copies as GTAV and a number of other high-profile games (FIFA, COD, the popular but cheaper Pokemon games, etc.) but it was still a success and very well-received overall.

If that’s tanking, then sign me up for it!

#9

From the article:

According to those with whom we spoke, the closure was the combined result of unfettered creative freedom, lower-than-expected sales, the butting of heads between Levine and his employees and the unrealistic expectations of big-budget game development.

Even they didn’t consider it a success. This means: no greenlight for the next project. Maybe.

1 Like
#10

That’s so, but “lower-than-expected sales” doesn’t deem it a failure overall. It seems clear they set their sights higher than they should have, but by all accounts they still turned out a quality game that earned the praise it got, and it seems they made money on it. Maybe not as much as they were hoping for, which did have repercussions, but we may be splitting hairs over it.

What’s known is the end result of what happened to the company, so it’s easy to say they weren’t successful enough. I still don’t look at that as being the same as saying it was a failure or it tanked, but I don’t have all the numbers they do. It was never a case of “BioShock Infinite flopped!” By all accounts, the changes at Irrational were still a big surprise.

#11

I think the larger point to all this ties in a bit with what Dan Vavra has talked about related to developers just going way overboard on game staff. I don’t remember the exact quote but it had to do with there being too many people doing minimal things, like “Oh, I’m here for the design of this one weapon.”

There’s probably a lesson to be learned about “bloat” when it comes to making a game and how many people you really need to do it and do it well. It kind of sounds like Irrational got too big for its own britches and I’m optimistic about Warhorse’s efforts since they seem to have a good idea of the staff they’ll actually need.

#12

Not having access to any sensible numbers I base this assertion on the rapidity with which the game was shifted into the “specials” deals on Steam/Gamersgate/etc… This would generally indicate a dire need to realise cash ASAP…

#13

I was late to the Bioshock series but must say I truly enjoyed it. I DID care about the characters and maybe it’s just a motherly instinct but I wanted to save the little sisters and took pleasure doing so. Was it a bit predictable? Perhaps. But I still enjoyed it all the same :slight_smile:

#14

Could be something to that, and for Playstation Plus members we recently got it through that program for “free” (considering the subscription fee) around a year after its release. I originally played it on the 360. I have to think there’s some sort of compensation that goes to a publisher/developer when their games are featured on PS+ so there may be some kind of sum from whatever agreements are made, plus any DLC gamers might buy afterward.

(Ah, that’s confirmed)

It’s definitely a linear game by design - so was BioShock and BioShock 2 - so its replayability may be less compared to other games, but that doesn’t matter as much to me as having an enjoyable story and experience overall. I felt satisfied with the game as a whole. What someone is willing to pay for a linear game (full price at launch or wait for a sale) is another story, though.

#15

Rapture interested me a lot, not just for the whole “utopia gone wrong” angle, which isn’t all that original, but especially the setting. I love the art deco style and that helped draw me to the game itself. I did not see the twist coming, though others probably did, but I definitely enjoyed it.

BioShock 2 was all right. The mechanic of playing as a Big Daddy wasn’t unique enough to really be any different from the protagonist in BioShock, but it was still fun to go back and see other parts of Rapture.

I appreciated that they tried to go in a different direction with BioShock Infinite in terms of putting it in the opposite kind of setting (the sky) and while combat was iffy the overall story worked well for me. Even still, some of it was a little confusing in places so I had to dig around online for some analysis of it once I finished the game.

#16

Most definitely agree with your descriptions. The first one offered something fresh and original, creepy yet beautiful. Playing as a Big Daddy in the second was a bit clunky (which in truth was what Big Daddy was so I guess they succeeded in the respect of making me feel immersed in the character.) As for Infinite, I haven’t played enough of it yet to know how I feel about it, but i AM glad to get out of the underwater atmosphere as I get claustrophobic, lol.

#17

System Shock and System Shock 2 were both fresh and original… Bioshock, while interesting, still failed to achieve the same level of creepiness and immersion as its predecessors while at the same time removing a great deal of what made them great…

#18

For a lot of people, myself included, BioShock was the first time we got a chance to play something in that “world” of games, so it was fresh and original to those of us in that sense. System Shock also came out in 1994 while the sequel was in 1999, so there were eight more years that went by before BioShock hit in 2007. That’s a lot of time.

I understand the BioShock games were not satisfactory to you, but please remember people come into a series of games at different points and you can’t expect them to all have the same perspective you do.

Hell, I’ve only just started playing Skyrim and had never played an Elder Scrolls game before, so my perspective is wildly different compared to many others. By that same token, Fallout 3 was the first Fallout game I experienced.

For that matter, I’m also just going back to actually play the Mafia games now.

#19

Unfortunately I didn’t play any of the System Shock so I cant compare my experience of Bioshock with them. Maybe I’ll just have to check them out :slight_smile:

#20

Skyrim is my “go to” game for endless wandering although it is a bit buggy in some spots. I have several achievements that I can’t get because I did a certain quest out of order. I’m contemplating whether to start a whole new game but that thought is daunting! If you enjoy it you may want to try Oblivion which most feel is the better of the two. Personally I’m going a little further back as I never got the chance to play Morrowind and now that I have a decent PC to play it on that’s where I’ll be :slight_smile: And I also started the Fallout series with 3 but enjoyed New Vegas a lot.

© 2015 Warhorse Studios www.warhorsestudios.cz