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[ChiefDada]

Surprising and sad, if true.

https://www.gamereactor.eu/redfall-developer-says-they-were-mocked-by-other-developers-1264973/

Redfall received a lot of criticism from the media, and the internet has also been flooded with negative reactions from fans. But apparently the developers behind Redfall have endured more than that, as colleagues from other studios have also mocked, and perhaps even gloated, over the game's lacklustre launch.

In a series of messages on Twitter, environment artist Sadie Boyd, who has launched her first title as part of Arkane Austin, says that Arkane Austin and the game have been mocked by colleagues from other developers:

 

[DenchDeckard]

Why did they deserve it?

 

[Crispy Gamer]

Yeah that's weird they need to be called out by name

 

[ergem]

This is on Phil for not giving the devs more time.

Gotta rush that game for gamepass.

 

[Chiggs]

Three thoughts:

• Hardly surprising, given how rotten the entertainment industry is...and this includes video games.
• Watching others fail and gloating about it is an entertainment industry tradition.
  • Actually, it's a human tradition.
• Better toughen up, Sadie...as callous as that might sound.

 

[SeraphJan]

This is sad, game development is a very difficult task, nobody deserve this bullying

 

[ChiefDada]

Why did they deserve it?

I don't understand your question are you suggesting they might have deserved this?

 

[zomboden]

This is on Phil for not giving the devs more time.

Gotta rush that game for gamepass.

The only thing more time would have gotten us is probably 60 fps on consoles and a few bug fixes.

The core gameplay loop is just boring. The mobs are repetitive. The loot is repetitive. The main story is super short. The missions are mostly copy paste. 90% of the games story is told through sticky notes and pieces of paper you find on the ground.

Phil was right to push it out the door. It was either that or cancel it completely right before release.

No singular developer should be blamed for the failure of the game. It blows my mind that nobody from Xbox or high in Bethesda came in and played a build and said “Whoa, wtf is this?”

Especially since Phil said he’s been seeing good builds of Avowed. So he is obviously looking into the games to some extent.

 

[HL3.exe]

Kinda wild. You would think other devs actually know how the process could go wrong and have at least some sympathy. Nobody wants to release a bad/disappointing game you're worked on for years, and a lot of the times it's a miracle a game ever releases in a good state.

But "they deserve this" it sounds like these clowns are partisan shills, participating in the childish console wars. The maturity of this industry sometimes...

 

[Dr. Suchong]

Schadenfreude.
Let's hope Arkane come back from the brink with some sort of "No man's sky" scenario.

 

[Nydius]

I wouldn’t be surprised if the colleagues who are mocking them are within Arkane Lyon. I can’t really explain it but I always got the feeling from various interviews from the Lyon team during their project development that they didn’t really care for the Austin team.

 

[L*][*N*K]

I imagine it was something like “Yo game is so broken that Phil Spencer will mention it in his suicide letter”

 

[Dr.brain64]

I blame the publisher. Not the devs. I blame ms.

Spoiler

I blame Phil

 

[Lucifers Beard]

Oh well, as shitty as that is you’ve got to toughen up and move on. The games crap and that’s on most people involved. Hopefully they can learn from this and release something better in the future.

 

[ProtoByte]

The industry and the media put up a really good facade of kumbaya, and only ever bothers to break it in juxtaposing standard employees with management or wrongthinkers via hit piece or a gossip chain. Guess the illusion does work on some people.

It might not be in good taste, but by all accounts, Redfall is an especially incompetent production from a studio that's been propped up as a top level studio, which was arguably never justified in the first place. When an industry legend like Harvey Smith is the face of a sub-60 Metacritic game under the guise of 2 massive publishers, you better believe people in the field will talk, and it won't all be courteous. It could be out of some kind of personal dislike, it could be out of frustration for thinking they deserve more credit compared to him/the studio, or it could just be a love of drama.

Long story short, this kind of thing happens.

 

[mansoor1980]

todd howard needs to keep an eye on things at BGS

 

[Azurro]

Three thoughts:

• Hardly surprising, given how rotten the entertainment industry is...and this includes video games.
• Watching others fail and gloating about it is an entertainment industry tradition.
  • Actually, it's a human tradition.
• Better toughen up, Sadie...as callous as that might sound.

Pronouns and red hair. She's a diversity hire for sure, she'll never toughen up.

 

[Yoboman]

Mocking devs always works

Prove me wrong

 

[Panajev2001a]

I wouldn’t be surprised if the colleagues who are mocking them are within Arkane Lyon. I can’t really explain it but I always got the feeling from various interviews from the Lyon team during their project development that they didn’t really care for the Austin team.

You are working with high performing French developers and you come from a US or Canadian upbringing? Oh well… that will be hard .

Anyways, it does suck seeing negativity, a lot of these people could not have done anything about it (like this env artist). Then again in highly successful game everyone shares in the praise… so succeed as a team and fail as a team. I tend not to write developers off because of a single misfire, look at what Avalanche (not the Max Max folks) delivered with Hogwarts: Legacy on so many platforms and how many people just looking at their background would not have given them the time of day?

 

[Krathoon]

To be honest, I am not that sympathetic. They are charging $70 for a broken game.
This game deserves to be mocked by their peers.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

pretty standard in any industry.

 

[PeteBull]

To be honest, I am not that sympathetic. They are charging $70 for a broken game.

Thats not the devs fault tho, but microsofts, aka phil's decision, he could as well delay game for 1 more year till at least its not amazing but gets around 70 metacritic score, but decided its ok to offer gamers really bad and unfinished product/throw devs under the buss.

 

[10101]

I mean by all accounts the game is poor so what did they expect? Better luck next time and a participation medal? I’m a dev (non game) and code reviews etc can be brutal sometimes, but you gotta roll with the punches and learn from it.

If you produce a turd then it should be called out imo. Time to put the big boy pants on, own it and learn from it. She should be thankful she still has a job, because frankly the environments in that game look like crap

 

[Mr Hyde]

It seems to be pretty common for game devs to shit talk other game developers work. Devs even bad mouthed Elden Ring and that was a critical and box office success.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Thats not the devs fault tho

It is also their fault too. As a team. If they made a successful banger they would not say it was all thanks to Phil? Not sure this “share the losses and keep the profits” attitude really helps people’s mental health and teams to function well and efficiently.

 

[Black_Stride]

Pronouns and red hair. She's a diversity hire for sure, she'll never toughen up.

Shes been in industry since 2014 and worked her way up to Environment art.
Worked on Prey: Mooncrash which was generally well received.
Arkane Austin def need to be hammered for this, but I dont think people need to be assholes to them.
We know they can put a good game together, RedFall just isnt one.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

Where are these guys mocking Aarkane? Who? When? Why not point them out?

She says she's a 2D artist (and I didn’t even need to guess her gender because she put it on her bio). How much of an involvement is there of a 2D artist in actual game development? Early pre-production concepts and marketing?

 

[ProtoByte]

I wouldn’t be surprised if the colleagues who are mocking them are within Arkane Lyon. I can’t really explain it but I always got the feeling from various interviews from the Lyon team during their project development that they didn’t really care for the Austin team.

That's a good guess.

If it isn't that, then she's just using "friends and colleagues" as a term for everyone in the industry, just by sharing a profession. Which is a possibility, but still. Good guess.

But "they deserve this" it sounds like these clowns are partisan shills, participating in the childish console wars. The maturity of this industry sometimes...

I highly doubt it's anything to do with console wars, or any consumer facing reason. If anyone would go as far as to say that, there's probably a personal reason for it.

 

[TonyK]

I'm playing alone, 10 hours into it and I'm enjoying it a lot more than Halo Infinite, Gears 5 or Ghostwire Tokyo. The bad press towards this game is insane. It's an Arkane Farcry, and that works very well for me.

 

[moniker]

Why do I get the feeling that the quotes are made up / exaggerated? Or at least not something said by her "peers, friends, or colleagues". They sound like random shitposts on some forum. Very shitty if true though.

 

[SJRB]

Surely the less talented developer would glee at a complete misfire from one of the industry's most acclaimed developers. Poor sportsmanship.

That said, people online say dumb shit all the time. If someone saying "lol fuck Arkane" or "those fucking idiots" gets you emotionally riled up, then you're gonna have a bad time.

Also: if you actually have friends who are happy you failed, you need better friends.

 

[DenchDeckard]

I don't understand your question are you suggesting they might have deserved this?

No, of course not. I'm saying why would they deserve this?

I get people saying they've tarnished their resume because it's a weak product...but I don't get why anyone would say they deserve hatred and vitriol.

 

[Johnny Concrete]

Where are these guys mocking Aarkane? Who? When? Why not point them out?

She says she's a 2D artist (and I didn’t even need to guess her gender because she put it on her bio). How much of an involvement is there of a 2D artist in actual game development? Early pre-production concepts and marketing?

Could also be UI/menu art or even texture art.

Either way: by friends she means Twitter followers? Because I doubt any ‘real life’ friends would be truly mocking eachother when they are failing.
If so then time to find new friends.

 

[TheKratos]

Do a better job next time instead of crying on twitter. This weak victim mentality tells me the next game won't be much better.

 

[lh032]

Where are these guys mocking Aarkane? Who? When? Why not point them out?

She says she's a 2D artist (and I didn’t even need to guess her gender because she put it on her bio). How much of an involvement is there of a 2D artist in actual game development? Early pre-production concepts and marketing?

the "cutscenes"?

 

[The Fuzz damn you!]

A lot of people defending this behaviour, which is pretty telling really.

Mock the game, by all means. Blame the studio and the publisher, sure. Fire the devs if they’re incompetent. All of these are reasonable and appropriate reactions as far as I’m concerned. That people cannot tell why these actions are not shitty behaviour while mocking the devs and celebrating failure are suggests, to me, that they missed out on some pretty damn important lessons on social courtesy while their primary schools were in COVID lockdown.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Kinda wild. You would think other devs actually know how the process could go wrong and have at least some sympathy. Nobody wants to release a bad/disappointing game you're worked on for years, and a lot of the times it's a miracle a game ever releases in a good state.

Social media society + being told to express your feelings - good and bad ones.

Although her “sad and confused, I have feelings too” rubs me the wrong way - just fucking move on, whining does nothing. Also - not everything you think needs to go on social media.

 

[HL3.exe]

I highly doubt it's anything to do with console wars, or any consumer facing reason. If anyone would go as far as to say that, there's probably a personal reason for it.

True, I doubt it as well. But it probably being personal is even more stupid, if true of course.

 

[Fart Knight]

Cry me a river. You damn well know you put out a turd.

 

[The Cockatrice]

and sad

1. Attention seeking bitch on twitter. "boohoo im human pls dont tell me my work sucks boohoo"
2. Nothing sad, they deserve all the shit they get. The game is a disgrace for the name Arkane in every possible way, art, sound, graphics, gameplay, performance, fucking everything.

 

[Danjin44]

Cry me a river. You damn well know you put out a turd.

Shit happens in game development, that doesn’t give anyone excuse to insulting developers.

 

[Krathoon]

Cry me a river. You damn well know you put out a turd.

Exactly. They deserve criticism from fellow developers.

 

[fermcr]

The internet is a disgusting place. Brings the worst out of people.

 

[Team Andromeda]

Grow a pair, please.... Silly tweets like that, will just make the team face even more ridicule

 

[Krathoon]

This reminds me of that Red Dwarf episode where they banned criticism. It was total chaos.

 

[Majukun]

blame fells on publishers, not the devs.
"difficult launch" shouldn't be a thing, you ship a game when ready.

 

[Disco Dave]

Name them. Until then, I'm pressing F to doubt.

Paying customers have every right to call you out on the state of the game - regardless of either having paid 70 squid or subbed on Gamepass.

Critics have a right to call your game out for having technical and design issues.

Other devs have a right to poke fun at the state of the game - yea, it's unprofessional and i dont agree with it if true, but they are still entitled to their opinion. But until she ponies up a name or the internet unmasks a tweet or email, im going to suggest she is exaggerating at best and lying at worst to cope with and deflect from the criticism the studio is facing.

 

[gaming_again]

Pussy society.

 

[Griffon]

Sorry but no, real devs usually understand how a project can get fucked up, and usually offer their sympathies to the staff who had to suffer a bad production. I've never heard or seen of what she's talking about.

Edit: well of course she's disabled replies because she knows she would be called out on her fabricated "devs"

 

[GymWolf]

Meh, get out of social media if you can't handle people saying how much of a shit job you did.