Topic: LoS2 dev confesses the reality behind the making of LoS2

[affinity]

Well that explains it all.  In my opinion, Castlevania hasn't been in good hands since IGA. 

http://www.vg247.com/2014/02/28/castlevania-lords-of-shadow-2-dev-discusses-troubled-development-blames-director-for-mediocre-game/

The whole letter:

Well, I would like to shed some light over the development of this game... Working with Mercury Steam and I would like to tell this anonymously- is about an everyday frustration. Here's to every guy that has experienced hell during the development of this game, but especially to those who have led this to the mess that Lords of Shadows 2 is:

- Kojima had little to nothing to do with the development of the first game, he came by, set a seal, visited the studio, signed some things and that was it. He had even less to do with Mirror of Fate and LoS2.

The vast majority of this team is aware that the game we've done is a real piece of s*** that has nothing to do with the first one's quality and production values... Nobody is surprised by the low reviews we've got.

- If there's someone to blame here, that's Enric Álvarez. He is the person who has led a broken development based on his personal criteria, completely overlooking programmers, designers and artists. Despite his nice look to the press, often considered as some sort of creative "visionary" in the looks of David Cage and Molyneux, this guy has serious problems. He is a mean and naughty guy, and since the "success Lords of Shadows 1" his ego has grown to the point of not even daring to say 'hello' when you meet him in the hallway.

His distrust to his own workers is enormous. Most of the development team often found out features of the game through press news, rather than from the studio's head - unbelievable. And there is no corporate culture here at all... this is just a handful of people working blindly and at the disposal of an alleged visionary.

- Many of the studio founders are people with zero abilities for running a studio. Often here newbie developers know more than their own bosses. This structure only leads to a slow, messy and absurd development process, with the end result of Lords of Shadows 2 being a perfect example of what happens due to that.

- Absolutely every design idea has to be monitored, taken away and mutilated by Enric Álvarez. Several game designers have grown tired of this and have abandoned the studio.

- The art direction for this project has been erratic and beheaded. After Enric dismissed every idea and core decission from our main art director for the previous projects, he decided to just leave. It was a battle of egos unleashed by Enric (something that he has carried over with since his times in Rebel Act). Our now former art director is still working in Madrid, now with the Tequila guys making RIME.

- Many others have just turned to other studios offers, sick of the situation here. Almost every month we see fellow devs packing up and getting out of here looking for a new job abroad that's sad. It's amazing how the biggest AAA game developer in Spain is not even willing to make its workers a counteroffer. This company does not think highly of its talented workers and their good work. There has never been any kind of salary bonus or anything that remotely resembles it. Not even a single "Good job team!" acknowledgement.

- The production management for this project has been terrible, way often the heads of each department dismissed every production deadline and imposed their own criteria. As a result, the development was delayed for six months, and that investment only came out of MercurySteam's pockets. The QA department is treated like cattle, with shameful wages and almost everyday bullying.

- After completing Lords of Shadows 2 MercurySteam has fired 35 workers, and it's embarrasing that no website or journalist is talking about that. More firings are expected to come in the following days.

What does Castlevania community think?  Maybe From Software would make better Castlevania games, though I dunno, Konami only treats MGS properly (well Kojima started the golden age of MGS, and still involved, which is why MGS still has some integrity, whereas Castlevania has suffered the outsourcing that DMC went through with that lame company, Ninja Theory.   )    Who knows what that company would do to Contra in its current state and with the wrong people making decisions.

[Ahasverus]

Woow Affinity, it's been a long time.
And the story originated here, I posted it on neogaf, and VG247 picked it so, Internet --- > Dungeon ----> Neogaf ---> Internet --- > Dungeon

[Shinobi]

Maybe it's the same case as IGA's situation, I will not be surprised considered how rushed his CV games was but he's not allowed to let it out in public since he's still working with Konami with other projects otherwise he will get fired for sure.

[X]

Hopefully Mercurysteam will fall apart completely before they can get their hands on anymore of our beloved classics. And from the sounds of things that just might be the case. I prey this letter gets circulated so much around the net that this egomaniacal leader of MS is brought down with his monster.

[thernz]

Hopefully Mercurysteam will fall apart completely before they can get their hands on anymore of our beloved classics.

uhh yeah, people should lose jobs because of bad management out of their control, sure

[Rugal]

What does Castlevania community think?  Maybe From Software would make better Castlevania games

How long have I been saying that?

[Viskod]

Hopefully Mercurysteam will fall apart completely before they can get their hands on anymore of our beloved classics. And from the sounds of things that just might be the case. I prey this letter gets circulated so much around the net that this egomaniacal leader of MS is brought down with his monster.

Like I said in the other thread, all of that is rather typical of any game development company. Its the rarer thing for game development to go smoothly and everyone in the chain of command to be on the same page than not. There are lots of ideas left on the chopping block that could have or would have been if not for the seemingly arbitrary veto of a department head or in this case one power hungry individual.

At the very least I am quite please that in spite of all of the office politics that completely nailed the games combat and managed to improve it a considerable amount from the first game. You can definitely tell the plot of the game suffered from this though, the villains were too shallow, and Victor Belmonts inclusion into the game so brief you have to wonder why he's even there not to mention the way the ending was changed because Konami didn't the original and I can't blame them it was awful.

[Ahasverus]

The plot thickens.

28/02/ UPDATE - Spanish website "Vadejuegos" confirmed with their own sources if the info posted here was true. Their results next:

- Vadejuegos is in position of confirming the story and clarifying some aspects of it.
- Development of Casltevania was very problematic due to leadership and communication problems.
- "Development problems are basically what was posted online".
- "In the end, the lead end up being the person who has been here for the most time or laughs the most at Alvarez' jokes"
- "Being creative there is complicated. People's ideas don't get anywhere. Rafael Jimenez, art director got tired of that and ended up in Tequila. They had him hand tied. He said "Well, here you remain with your brilliant ideas"".
- "Jimenez did the first game's art which was awesome, and (thanks to his departure) this second one is a Frankenstein. There is a power struggle. Some parts are pretty, some aren't".
- "This Castlevania ended up being a little weird due to that. Each department goes with itself and there is no internal communication".
- "They mistreat their people. They.. distrust themselves. It's a very weird ambient, very little creative"
- Relating the stealth sections: "Some of us said, "But what is this? Are we really doing this? Why rats? Really?". Those things were bad and talked between us. This has been like this for 2 years, not before.
- "There weren't any meetings. We found out things llots of times by the press".
- Regarding the first post veracity: "It's not true (that I know of) that Konami is displeased with the game. That can't be known yet".
- "The delay didn't involve out pocket's money (that we know of) it was the normal thing caused by a production of this size.
- Alvarez has been contacted.

http://www.vadejuegos.com/noticias/desvelamos-los-problemas-de-desarrollo-de-castlevania-lords-of-shadow-2-20140228.html

[Trevelyan]

Like I said in the other thread, all of that is rather typical of any game development company.

Yeah, this is what happens in AAA game dev.  Cox even publicly said MoF was done so they wouldn't have to lay off a lot of people between LoS1 and 2.  It's a pretty normal thing in the industry right now. 

[beingthehero]

- Relating the stealth sections: "Some of us said, "But what is this? Are we really doing this? Why rats? Really?". Those things were bad and talked between us. This has been like this for 2 years, not before.

I like how people on here tried to justify rats so hard and yet even MercurySteam was all 'this is fucking stupid'

[Kale]

uhh yeah, people should lose jobs because of bad management out of their control, sure

Isn't this pretty much almost ALWAYS the case?

That said, I still sort of hope for it. Not in that, "Hah, people are losing jobs" but in more of the they can probably get up and do something else, like their own indie studio or just gather up the ones that they think are good and do their own thing.

And I'm glad that there are chances for these things. While, an anonymous person saying this doesn't really mean as much as a named person, it speaks loads when someone wants to talk about how bad it's been, in any industry, because of management/investors/bussinessmen.

[Intersection]

Woow Affinity, it's been a long time.
And the story originated here, I posted it on neogaf, and VG247 picked it so, Internet --- > Dungeon ----> Neogaf ---> Internet --- > Dungeon

Everything comes full circle.

[X]

uhh yeah, people should lose jobs because of bad management out of their control, sure

I don't think the development staff would mind given their diabolical leader's state of mind. Even if I were a member of such a team I wouldn't care which one comes first; 'fire me' or 'I quit'. it doesn't matter with such an egotistical douche at the helm. Those people would be more happy doing what they love at other venues of emplyment rather then sticking with Mercurysteam's Dr. Evil.

[ChibiMaddiChan]

Not uncommon but depressing as crap to read.  Guess this means no more LoS save DLC, huh?

[Thomas Belmont]

I don't understand the hate. I think Lords of Shadow 2 is an awesome game! It's a mixture of Castlevania, The Legend of Zelda, Darksiders, Legacy of Kain, Soul Reaver, the Batman Arkham games, etc.