Response from ECB regarding AC13...

[Langeveldt]

What I want to know is, how in 2013 does a studio whose entire existence is to make video games, creating something like AC13?

What happens for a development to be so fundamentally bad?

It just does not compute for me...

My theory, it got to Alpha stage, didn't progress any further for reasons we will probably never know. We were given the jumbled messages, the release dates and such, and then someone in early November thought they could make a few dollars back for the company and so put said alpha on Steam..

Thats the only thing I can think of

 

[Biggs]

Could be as simple as the ambition was far greater than the investment in the talent available? They got too far down the rabbit hole to admit they were in too deep?

 

[blockerdave]

Excluding licenses they had waaaaayyyy more $ than ourselves, difference is we spent the money on the game. Never worked with the same publisher twice.... Hmmm

then something fishy went down, 100%.

someone probably just put their kid through college and bought a new house, but he sure as hell didn't develop no video game...

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Could be as simple as the ambition was far greater than the investment in the talent available? They got too far down the rabbit hole to admit they were in too deep?

the thing is, there was either some spectacular lying involved - I mean, showing builds of a different game level lying - or such a failure of due diligence on 505's part it's bewildering.

on a project like this, 505 don't give them money and say "come back June 2013"... there would have been plenty of milestones and deliverables, and the game is so ball-achingly bad that this would have been absolutely clear from the first milestone. so how did it get so far? did they still have alphas/betas kicking around from when they made previous titles and showed that to buy time figuring they could pull it back later? or did 505 just not give all kinds of f*ck? because something just does not add up. not one bit.

 

[BigAntStudios]

Holidays, it's all about the holidays

 

[SpitfiresKent]

Holidays, it's all about the holidays

Don't forget the ticket for the boxing day test match

 

[BigAntStudios]

Not sure he'd want to turn up at any CA events at this stage....

Ashes license is now considered Toxic

 

[Biggs]

Bold prediction: We'll never see an "Ashes" branded title again.

on a project like this, 505 don't give them money and say "come back June 2013"... there would have been plenty of milestones and deliverables...

Exactly, I don't know how it works for games, but in the media you're constantly sending WIP stuff for approvals. Maybe they were fudging the numbers somehow and not giving 505 the full picture? Whole thing feels like a massive inside-job scam, really. I doubt we'll ever know the truth but the speculation is always going to err towards the dramatic I guess.

Maybe it IS just a simple case of inept management from 505 and Trickstar thinking their polished turd wasn't that bad?

 

[BigAntStudios]

505 trusted too much, got mobiling'd

Poor bastards. Early September.

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I'd post another Pistols clip but am mobile... Point is everyone ?except? the reps got mobiling'd hard.

In the words of Lydon, "it's a swindle!"

 

[Snowy]

Re-reading the early September diatribe is depressingly hilarious.

Here is another weekly update, we had another solid week of production last week and it looks like we finally have all the technology issues behind us. We are now turning all our attention of bug fixing, multiplayer testing and game polishing so the finish line is now in sight.

Unequivocal lies.

 

[barmyarmy]

I want to know more about early design decisions and the concept and outline for the game. Even if you ignore the bugs it strikes me as an incredibly unambitious offering.

 

[Snowy]

Couldn't agree more. The yellow lines all over the pitch are somehow less challenging and even more obtrusive than the standard bowling marker.

 

[BigAntStudios]

It's a Swindle, it doesn't need a design.

 

[Biggs]

The fact that the HUD has

User-Input Vertical Moving Line
Automatic Horizontal Moving Line
Additional "Energy Bar" thing
Batsman HUD score
Fielder HUD

It's just a MESS visually with so much information clogging the screen that should be hidden away until you want to see it, y'know... during a cut-scene or between deliveries like real cricket.

The Line/Length yellow bars are the worst of all because that's all you end up looking at, not the graphics or the players but lines on a pitch! Given the licensed material is the "Star of the show" you'd think they would want you looking at the cool bats, the player faces, the... oh... oh... oh I see what they did there...

Even if you ignore the bugs it strikes me as an incredibly unambitious offering.

I think it maybe once WAS ambitious but they didn't have the talent to make it happen, so they bullshitted their way through R&D and started pulling out things they couldn't get working (Like replays and cutscenes, he laughed out loud) until this was all that was left.

 

[BigAntStudios]

The fact that the UI has

User-Input Vertical Moving Line
Automatic Horizontal Moving Line
Additional "Energy Bar" thing
Batsman HUD score
Fielder HUD

It's just a MESS visually with so much information clogging the screen that should be hidden away until you want to see it, y'know... during a cut-scene or between deliveries like real cricket.

The Line/Length yellow bars are the worst of all because that's all you end up looking at, not the graphics or the players but lines on a pitch! Given the licensed material is the "Star of the show" you'd think they would want you looking at the cool bats, the player faces, the... oh... oh... oh I see what they did there...

Yeah, it's funny in the context that I have had a mantra of "minimalist HUD" in the studio for every game we've ever made, it's like whatever we have they had to take the opposite view.

 

[Shane109]

Could be as simple as the ambition was far greater than the investment in the talent available? They got too far down the rabbit hole to admit they were in too deep?

This seems likely. It's like when your boss gives you a project and you've done nothing, you still spin the web.
"I've got a start on it."
"It's looking good."
"Nearly done."
And then he wants to see it. So your choices are come clean and say you haven't done it, or knock something together super sloppily and quick and hope he doesn't realise how terrible it is.