Alpha Protocol developer not proud

One of the team working on the game has posted comments about its development and is not proud to have been a part of it.

[knight626]

not many people liked it but i liked it i just berly started yes the AI sucks or is no ME2 but idc i could have fun with this game

[Rainstorm81]

When are people going to learn this.

I have this game and it plays like a very poor rip off of Mass Effect.
Im also early in the game but GT review of 6.4 or whatever seems to be spot on.

Sega comes out with like 5 good games a gen out of like 50 so no one shouldntve expected much.

[jetlian]

funded the game they didn't make it. get your info right next time

[morganfell]

But Sega had input. Did you not read it? The publisher controls the purse strings for most devs. Even the article mentioned Sega's meddling. It's just that most of the damage was not done by them.

This producer sound's like Christian Allen's brother....

[Rainstorm81]

so its not Sega's game?

It just has Sega's name all over it including the old classic "SEGA" voice in the beginning. Sega published the game, its thier blame to take.

If it was a great game (yes i have it) Sega would share the credit.
So share the blame as well

[kingdavid]

"Sega also was a factor, because they kept changing the design requirements (yes they had heavy influence there), which never gave the producers and designers time to actually decide on one set of features to make and polish. The blame is still mostly Obsidian's because the execution was absolutely terrible."

Its obvious that Obsidian should take most of the blame, they developed the game after all.... And its not as if they have had a great record with games in the past. Obsidian isnt owned by sega in anyway, you can't just call it sega's game.

Bethesda published rogue warrior, probably the worst game of last year. You gonna blame them for that too?

[Elven6]

Obsidian has done some great games in the past, KoTOR 2 was a good game but could have been even better if LucasArts didn't rush it out the door. Anyone who has played the fan made restoration mods can tell you this, infact, if the game came out like how Obsidian had hoped it could easily have eclipsed the first (although it does for me personally anyway).

Neverwinter Nights 2 and the expansions are all great games as well. Alpha Protocol is Obsidian's first game to receive a reception like this.

In regards to Rogue Warrior, yes since Bethesda switched developers midway through development which is never a good sign.

[morganfell]

The bad thing about Rogue Warrior is that the previous version from Zombie which was canceled was a decent Unreal 3 game with the greatest underwater swimming you have ever seen. Also the SP was a 4 man squad led by the player that supported co-op for the SP game.

[jetlian]

meddling has nothing to due with its execution. they just giving input. I still think the game looks ok. My friend is getting it tomorrow so i'll know by then

[RedPawn]

If you had issues use your voice on what could of been done about the problems it's called a TEAM for a reason.

[RememberThe357]

The lead producer and co-owner wouldn't listen. Read first...

[RedPawn]

I understand that but I don't need to read some crap about what was gonna be a mediocre game anyways.

But I do sympathise for the employees distress, cause that shit happens at work places, everyday.

The point of the arcticle has already been explained in the first sentence.

This is also the exact reason people loose faith in their craft.

[NeoBasch]

I read the article, and the guy did a lot of b*tching. Not saying that I wouldn't under similar circumstances, but he expressly said he didn't argue much as it's hard to argue with the owner. In my opinion, he's just venting. A lot of companies have this problem. They used to give programmers and artists a lot of leeway, and basically design the games for them, which led to a lot of $hitty games.

Companies are finally beginning to realize it pays to have professional designers who are on board from the very beginning. Gamers seek substance. Designers help feed that, but it takes work away from many programmers and artists. In my opinion, that's a good thing. The staff shouldn't have to worry about the designs, and instead the implementation of the systems. I have a feeling there is more than one side to this argument.

Naughty Dog uses a similar set up. They have creative designers as well. They micromanage a lot too. It's standard practice in video game design. For good reason. However, if what this guy says is true, the difference is that Naughty Dog's designers listen to their crew. They have an open environment where anyone can say anything and recommend a different course of action. I like that approach, and I have a hard time believing this guy's story as most companies take that approach as well.

Who knows what the real reason could have been. Short deadlines, team management, etc. Could have been any number of reasons. I just don't think it's fair to point blame after hearing only one guy's opinion. I mean, I feel sorry for him if it's true, but that's just one side to it. Besides, this was an anonymous post, who says it was even a member of their staff? Could be a bitter fan expressing their resentment towards the production without knowing the facts. If he wanted to speak out so bad, he shouldn't have done so anonymously.

[Elven6]

Even after making a second comment perhaps you should have read what the employee said instead of digging your hole further. The producers on the project were not willing to listen to the feedback given.

[NeoBasch]

Wrong. First off, this is just one person: one side of the story. Who knows how it really went.

Second, this is the quote you're looking for:

"And you can't exactly argue with one of the owners of the company when he doesn't want to listen."

Sounds to me like he gave up early on. I've worked with people like this before. They'll listen. Just give it time and don't give up. They'll understand eventually. It's as much this dude's fault as the owner if this story is to be believed. I hate it when people jump to conclusions.

[RememberThe357]

I knew something was off with this game when I saw the first developer diary on it. They seemed to be faking their excitement for it and frankly those guys just seemed lame. This is also on Sega for letting some dumb ass producer take over a game. If your not skilled at game design don't force it, not everyone can be a Kojima or Namura.

[ShadesMoolah]

The game has a lot of potential and the mind boggles as to how great it 'could' have been given more resources.

[darkequitus]

I was looking forward to this for such a long time. Too risky to buy. I will rent it now.

[Nihilism]

From 6 months ago all the game preview write ups had completely disregarded it as garbage, so when it was released I wasn't expecting much

[T9X69]

I wouldn't be proud of it either, it looks like a wannabe Mass Effect and so far its been a flop according to reviews. None the less, I still want to give it a go by renting it. Always enjoy trying new games even if they look like there going to completely suck.

[Nihilism]

Imagine mass effect without the sci fi...

aka the main thing ME has going for it...

yeah it doesn't look pretty

[kwyjibo]

I'm disappointed because I think a Mass Effect without the Sci-fi could have been great. I actually thought the first Mass Effect had fairly dull universe.

I probably will pick up Alpha Protocol at some point, but that some point will be when it's £5 in a Steam weekend sale.

[xTHRASHx]

intresting article. too bad for AP, seems like ambitous projects from not so great compaines (Sega) always fall by the wayside

[chak_]

ouch

[dragonelite]

Once again giving someone a management job that isn't qualified for it.
Talking about shooting yourself in the foot.

[darkequitus]

Just like that idiot with DNF

[unrealgamer58]

LOL

[Sarobi]

When i first heard about This game and saw some of the previews and stuff for it, i thought in those exact moments "this looks like a fail" and my interest for the game disappeared, this was a good read though, shows you why you need to listen to get things done, there is no 'i' in team

[Socomer 1979]

Ya sold us a lemon.
2 years away from your family for experience on your resume but you chose to cry about it.
You gets no respect. Who needs your incompetance on another project? We all know as soon as you have a dissagreement you'll be bloggin your tears & crying a river.

[acere]

another SEGA game bite the dust
they should cancel and give the proper polish even if take a year

[BannedForNineYears]

Reminds me of the Insomniac interview I watched a while ago.
They talked about the old game they were working on but ended up scrapping.
>_>
Should have scrapped Alpha Protocol.

[Baka-akaB]

Makes you wonder how much worse was that aliens rpg they canned

[RagTagBnd445]

How the hell can a company be so nonprofessional? This project must be a black hole in Sega's budget...

[OutgoingSquall]

Guys the game isn't even that bad play it. its not the best this game will have it's fanbase my cousin has been playing it ever since he got it.

[ElementX]

I posted that this game was crap in another article and somebody had the nerve to tell others to report me for trolling. When the developer isn't proud, you know the game is crap. This guy was saying I shouldn't comment on a game without playing it and that's trolling. I told him that when a game review states that the AI is broken, the cover system sucks, and just seems unfinished, it's a crap game.

http://n4g.com/news/532336/...
#2.2

[dkgshiz]

Juts rent it.

[sam2236]

If the game stinks, then why would you rent it?

Cool logic there, bro.

[yog-sothot]

Damn

how could they fail with Chris Avellone as the lead designer ? Who the hell is that executive Chris Parker who took all those bad decisions ?

[mobijoker]

This game is pretty good.Aside from old graphics(which can never be a true parameter to rate games as smaller devs can't be expected to pull out a stellar graphics bcoz of budget),the other flaws(!)stated is pretty lame.Stat based shooting has been criticised,but if that's wrong then why play rpg,go play loads of fps which uses same mechanics.The AI is reasonable.Come on!Its a spy rpg.In a combat,your enemy will always try to catch you alive so running of enemy towards you during gunfight is completely justified.Don't listen to critics like i didn't in case of NWN2 which also panned but was awesome.Just play AP to believe it.

[bjornbear]

i respect this guy for actually saying SOMETHING

the leader + sega, go get stuffed.

he did say New Vegas wasn't suffering as much though =D lets hope not...

[Figboy]

i worked at Obsidian back on Neverwinter Nights 2, when Alpha Protocol was still in the prototyping stages, and they were trying to sell it to Sega.

they had made this cool little video montage of spy/espionage movies that they presented to Sega to show them the type of feel they wanted for the game.

i remember the early concept art and screenshots of the game, and it is VERY DIFFERENT from what the final product turned out to be. if i remember correctly, the game wasn't an RPG at all, but a straight up 3rd person shooter with gadgets. ironically enough, those early prototype game levels/screenshots, looked better than what the final game looked like.

the devs at Obsidian are some really great guys (as are Chris Avelone and Feargus Urquhart), so it's too bad that they weren't allowed to make the game that they originally envisioned.

Obsidian has lots of talent, and they were some of the best guys i've ever worked with in the industry so far, but they need to be bought up by a company that appreciates creativity, with a track record for shaping quality devs, not smothering them with unnecessary controlling.

Sony would probably be a better fit for Obsidian; they'd give them the right funding and tech support, and yet still allow them to work on the IPs that they are excited about working on, with a very hands off method when it comes to input on what the dev is working on.

Publishers need to learn to trust their developers more. Sega just demonstrated that they had no trust in Obsidian pulling off a quality game, and they couldn't keep their hands out of the pot.

it doesn't help either when the game director has a big fucking EGO like this Chris Parker seemed to have. game development is a difficult process. there NEEDS to be collaboration and checked egos if a product is going to be quality.

look at Too Human. the concept was AWESOME. the execution was poor. why? because Dennis Dyack couldn't keep his ego in check. the moment a dev team starts to let their pride and stubbornness dictate how they develop a game, is the moment the project starts to fall apart.

publisher interference is still a big problem though(i also worked at Luxoflux, another company full of some cool, enthusiastic guys, but Activision and Hasbro were constantly making changes/adjustments to the development of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and about half of the design document was cut from the game because of time, budget, and Hasbro's own fears about the game affecting the toy line if it was too good. yeah, i facepalmed at that one too).

[mobijoker]

The publishers are interfering too much this days.The result is
lack of new ideas in gaming.Devs are forced to follow a juicy successful formula until the all the juice dries out.So,what we get?The same old point the crosshair,pull the trigger-BOOM! with graphical tweaks each year.

[Figboy]

this corporate greed is really starting to affect the quality of gaming. in particular from multi-platform developers.

it's fortunate, however, that companies like Naughty Dog, Bioware, Insomniac, Sucker Punch, etc, are given the freedom to follow their ideas, instead of cookie-cuttering some established and successful formula like FPS.

i can't tell you how much i've enjoyed the latest resurgence of action/adventure games like Heavenly Sword, Darksiders, God of War 3, etc. it was so satisfying to take a fricking BLADE to an enemies dome instead of, "BOOM HEADSHOT!" all the damn time. to me, pointing a gun at an enemy and pulling the trigger just isn't as satisfying as pulling off an awesome combo with a melee weapon like a sword, staff, whatever.

i certainly enjoy shooters, but man am i sick of seeing them right now. i remember when the only problem with shooters was the constant regurgitating of the WWII genre, but NOW, now it's just a plague of generic, uninspired FPS after FPS, and the audience GOBBLES THEM UP!

i guess they haven't gotten to the point where they will realize that CTF, TDM, DM, Survival, etc, are the SAME IN EVERY FPS, no matter what name you try and slap on it to make it sound different.

[jack_burt0n]

Revenge of the fallen was a hell of alot better than the movie was, Luxoflux can wear that as a god damn banner of pride.

A friend said the same about the time he spent with molyneux his ego knew NO bounds whatsoever he really suffered there.

[Figboy]

i was on the multi-player team on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and i was surprised that it was as enjoyable as it was, but Luxo had a lot of plans for the game that had to be scrapped.

they also knew that they could have made the game LOOK so much better had they been given the time from Activision, but NOOOO, it had to release before the movie.

Activision doesn't give two shits about game quality. they know name alone will sell their swill, so they don't put much stock in quality. it's a shame, because many of the developers at Activision really DO want to create some quality, memorable games, even based off their licenses.

hands down, they have been the WORST company i've ever worked for. no exaggeration.

[DigitalAnalog]

But apparently, the concept is great but the delivery is terrible.

-End statement

[AngryTypingGuy]

I was pretty excited to play this one when I first saw the article about it in Game Informer a year or so ago. It's a shame it turned out to be lackluster. Oh well, they can't all be winners I guess. But then what do I care about this game, I just bought Mass Effect 2 :-)

[asyouburn]

i figure if i go into it expecting crap, i'll actually have alot of fun with it. i remember ign's reviews for god hand, and i LOVE that game.