The Lord of the Rings: Gollum studio Daedalic reportedly lays off 25 employees, exiting game development
3 years ago by MonochromeObserver to c/gaming
Really? I just looked through the games they developed, and it's a whole bunch of nothing.
Memoria was amazing, it really stuck to me for some reason. Even after all these years it's the one game I really remember and every time I think about it, I feel a bit melancholic.
Pillars of the Earth is another acclaimed game, I really should play it, it's in my backlog for a while now.
Pillars of Earth was a wonderful game! 🎮
Sad news, but industry insiders have said that even bad, botched games like this one can teach you important lessons that help you make really good games later on. I wish the developers the best, and hope that they won't let this set them back.
It's just the studio that's breaking up, those 25 employees will likely find new work in the same or similar industry. Still it's always a blow to see a new team crumble under the pressure. I never played the game, but it looked well made. I could have told you before they developed it though that the concept was flawed. They were trying to ride the LOTR fan base and it backfired I guess.
Well made is not the right word. The game lacked severe polish and the game play was terrible. Brownie points for the attempt though
Well by all reports they did a shitty job, so....
I mean, yeah. That's because they were tasked with something they had never done before. Given a product that's absolutely awful from even a marketing perspective. Gollum? Really?
They choose to do this. Delicious has historically been a point and click developer, but they wanted to diversify, especially since their previous title "pillars of the earth" flopped. They first tried their have at rts with "a year of rain" which is simply not that good, and then looked into Gollum.
You also can't raid make the argument that the project was rushed out the door, considering the game was supposed to release in 2021 (two years ago).
They tried something they had no experience in, not through coercion but because they wanted to, and produced a game of shockingly low quality. Since this wasn't the first flop, but just the latest in a huge series of flops, (though it was the most expensive and high profile one) the studio closed.
The managers chose to do this, and they chose a horrendous concept.
The developers just tried to execute, they also failed but the project was doomed from the start.
I see no indication that this was a to down forced decision from management (just from having talked to some developers at Gamescom a couple of years ago).
The concept really wasn't horrible it just looks like it now having seen the product, but a stealth have themed after Gollum is not a dumb idea.
There's lots of stuff you could do, like e.g. use the ring for temporary invisibility but at the cost of losing some e.g. sanity resource you need to recover.
The problem with this game is that the idea being bad doesn't even really factor into its quality since just the actual bare-bones graphics and fundamental gameplay is so broken that the lack of original ideas isn't really a factor.
If this was just a no-thrills e.g. thief clone with a Gollum skin, nobody would bar an eye. The problem is that even this low bar of "some stealth game+Gollum" is not reached.
In fact, we have a very direct comparison to a different "Gollum like stealth have produced by an indie developer" that was a smash hit: "Styx: master of shadows" is a climbing based stealth have featuring a small green goblin like protagonist that has to deal with a powerful but risky to use substance.
@MonochromeObserver It's always sad if people lose their jobs and if companies/studios stop producing games. Yes, Gollum was not a good game from my perception (didn't play it myself). One game should not lead to closure in my opinion. We don't know what happened in the back; maybe the studio did a poor job, maybe the higher ups did a bad organization, who knows?! Hopefully these people get a job somewhere else.
I am just sympathetic from the human side, not from the work they did. The game looks like it should have never been released and whoever was responsible for, should be ashamed of him/her-self.
@thingsiplay As an aspiring 3D modeler in game dev, yeah I can sympathize. But that's what lack of quality control does.
Death marches. At the end of the day atleast you know to have a job lined far in advance and make it a very "this is for a paycheck" job mentality.
The publishing side of their business has always been their greatest strength anyway imo, so this makes sense
go to feed...
go to feed...
It's a shame what has become of them, they made such great games in the past...
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