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[Shaanyboi]

Everybody's Gone

Ohhh noooo lol

 

[Virdix]

Cant quote the post because the thread got closed. (lol)

But it looks like CD Projekt didn't make that photo: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=202197657&postcount=293

I didn't enjoy A Machine For Pigs but I hope the employees land on their feet.

 

[_Ryo_]

Damn. This is awful. I hope it really is temporary and those laid off soon land on their feet. My thoughts are with them all.

 

[chadskin]

Oh man.

 

[drangleic tourism]

Was looking forward to playing Everybody Gone to the Rapture.

But you still can...?
It's been out for a while.

 

[Maroon Gamer]

Rapture was an amazing game, enjoyed it. This is bad news.

 

[King_Moc]

While I think a percentage based completion refund is a bad idea (and almost entirely uninforceable, I could easily just report every player has completely 100% of the game within the first minute), the 2 hour thing is also shit.

The issue is that Dear Esther is less than two hours long. So you can complete the game, then refund it.

 

[pagrab]

I was not able to play EGTR because it made me physically ill with its slow movement and fluctuating framerate. Still sad to see this news.

 

[KonradLaw]

I'm still sad we never got to see them developing commercial game expanding on ideas from Korsakovia mod.

 

[SolicitorPirate]

I regret giving them a dime. Hope the employees affected by this walk away unscathed but I won't mourn a closure in the future.
https://twitter.com/chineseroom/status/852577448755683328?lang=en
https://twitter.com/chineseroom/status/725958220284465153?lang=en

Every time I start to believe gamers aren't the most childish fucking people in the world, posts like this reminds me what a naive fool I am

 

[finley83]

Eurogamer article is up.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-09-25-the-doors-close-on-the-chinese-room-for-now

 

[AzaK]

Loved both those games. Bummer to see them in trouble.

 

[thekeats]

Just read through the article and there is some very interesting ideas in there.

The Chinese Room prides itself on ethical development. Pinchbeck calls it a "nine to five studio", but even then, the dreaded crunch could not be avoided towards the end of Everybody's Gone to the Rapture's development.

"It wasn't everybody at all," Pinchbeck says. "The leads crunched. The art director. Lead programmer. Lead designer. Me and Jess. Most of the team didn't, actually. They did a couple of like, oh we worked till seven. We were like, that's not crunch. But even then, not much. No weekends. A lot of the pressure accumulates at the top."

But why? Why did The Chinese Room succumb to crunch, like so many developers do?

"You have a title that's working perfectly," Pinchbeck explains. "Milestone day, you roll up in the morning, quite happily turn the computer on and it's completely broken. Overnight it all breaks. Those last little incremental bits of polish can radiate down and cause loads of problems. There's always that."

Or this on trying to get work

"It's really expensive running a studio," Dan Pinchbeck tells me. "We were 11 or 12 people at that point. You're chewing through £35 - 40,000 a month, which is pretty hefty. Your running costs are very high..."

As an independent video game developer, The Chinese Room lives by the seat of its pants. It is the same for so many across the video game world. If money's not coming in, you can't pay the bills. That's why developers often spend as much time pitching projects as they do building games. If there's nothing coming next, it could be hard to keep the lights on - possibly impossible.

Main thing seems to be they didn't want to do walking simulators any more instead they wanted to do something different. Unfortunately the only offers they had where for walking simulators.

 

[Shifty]

It'll be interesting to see where this goes. Much like saying "I think we should take a break" in a relationship, I can see this being the point at which things fade away into obscurity.

More power to them if they can figure things out and come back in future though.

But that's such an easy measure to determine if people are shit

let is_shit person =  length ( filter disagreeable person.statements) >= 2

You gotta admire the efficiency of it.

I'd minify and uglify that, can't have the disagreeables knowing how GAF works under the hood.

 

[Prithee Be Careful]

A shame. I loved Rapture, although I haven't got around to playing Dear Esther yet.



So because they happened to share a couple of opinions you disagree with you don't care if the whole company goes under? That's pretty fucking immature. I agree with the notion of the first tweet (although not in working out the refund proportion on a percentage played basis) and can't really disagree with the second either. Why is a beautiful sexy robot lady in lingerie the first thing they show of Cyberpunk?

Read the comments, the image is from the original series and was used by Gamespot - CDPR never used it in promotion.

 

[Family Fry]

Eurogamer article is up.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-09-25-the-doors-close-on-the-chinese-room-for-now

Recommended reading, then talking about developing Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, man that sounded frustrating.

The Chinese Room tore down and rebuilt the village in Rapture five times over the course of development. They only locked it 10 months out from finishing the game. The developers were, as you'd imaging, exasperated.

I’m gutted to see them going and hope one day they can come back and get a team together for another great experience, like only The Chinese Room can develop.
Also Jessica Curry is an amazing composer.

 

[Aroll]

Weird seeing someone want them to go under for having two opinions that aren't that bad. The steam refund policy really sucks for indie Devs and honestly needs fixing. The 2 hour thing is silly. I don't think they should allow full refunds, only partial.

Do you magically get full refunds returning physical games after playing? No. It'd now a used product. People also abuse the system to buy indie games just to try them. Which hurts the Devs because when you buy the game it's NOT a rental system. Though, that could be an alternative option. Remove refunds, enable Devs to have a rental system for cheaper to try their games that isn't refundable.

There are better ways than what steam does now. The "sexist" remark can rub you the wrong way but it's not like it's a controversial statement. Plenty agree.

They made some really great games. The health scare just put things in perspective and they realized they weren't enjoying it anynore. They want to get back to doing what they love as artists instead of being managers.

 

[mckmas8808]

This is really, really sad.

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture was truly incredible, it stuck with me for a long time. From the score, to the modelling of place, to the voice acting, I can't think of a game that creates such an intricate sense of place and nostalgia. For me, it's one of the greatest games of this generation, without a doubt.

I hope that everyone lands on their feet, and that they'll return soon.

MAN I loved this game. Wish it was PS4 PRO enabled.

 

[#sorrynotsorry]

Reading this, honestly it makes me kind of angry. This seems incredibly selfish on the part of the leads. Not because I want or deserve to play more of their games, but for the rest of the team that made the studio what it was.

So they both don't like managing a team. So they just close the whole thing? Why not...hire a manager? Or step away for a bit if it's causing a health issue and let the other continue running things? The only reason not to do one of those two things is vanity as far as I can tell. They think the studio and themselves are one and the same. They are not. The studio was everyone that was a part of it, until they sacrificed all those employees who poured their heart and souls into the project just because they created an environment they didn't like.

There were better ways to go about this. I do hope all the team landed on their feet. I don't wish anything bad upon the leads of course, but I will say I think they've made a mistake.

 

[CharminUltra]

Everybody's Gone

I feel bad for laughing @ this.

Anyway, hope everyone lands on their feet.

 

[Lunaray]

Reading this, honestly it makes me kind of angry. This seems incredibly selfish on the part of the leads.

...What?

You just can't win with the gaming community.

Edit: To add on:

So they both don't like managing a team. So they just close the whole thing? Why not...hire a manager? Or step away for a bit if it's causing a health issue and let the other continue running things? The only reason not to do one of those two things is vanity as far as I can tell. They think the studio and themselves are one and the same. They are not. The studio was everyone that was a part of it, until they sacrificed all those employees who poured their heart and souls into the project just because they created an environment they didn't like.

There were better ways to go about this. I do hope all the team landed on their feet. I don't wish anything bad upon the leads of course, but I will say I think they've made a mistake.

Financial pressure was one of the reasons cited for why the studio is going dark. How much do you think is it costs to keep a studio running? You can't just hire a manager, step away, and come back and have the studio magically produce a game in the meantime. That's not how this works. Saying they're vain for wanting to take a break and not incur the overheads of running a studio in the meantime is being incredibly uncharitable.

 

[Garrett Hawke]

I regret giving them a dime. Hope the employees affected by this walk away unscathed but I won't mourn a closure in the future.
https://twitter.com/chineseroom/status/852577448755683328?lang=en
https://twitter.com/chineseroom/status/725958220284465153?lang=en

this petty ass post LMAO

Anyway. Really sad for those who’ve lost their jobs... we had a lecture once from one of their artists. She was really nice.

 

[Pandy]

Anecdotally, I know people who love their games, but have only experienced them through watching YouTubers.
Slightly off topic, but as we're discussing Steam refunds in here it seemed relevant.

On topic: hope they're able to regroup and make another go of it with a more sustainable structure for them personally and professionally.

 

[jacobeid]

Don't see anything worth getting as pathetically butthurt as you are. The Witcher does have some sexist aspects and it is arguably wrong that a short game can be refunded after someone has finished the game.

I mean, I'm 99.9% sure you're talking about the same person who caused such a shitstorm for no reason about Kal's Nier Automata PC mod and harassed him so much about it that he took it down.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/524220/discussions/0/1327844097131584424/

Yup, same person. Best not to even give them attention. Pissed off for no reason seems to be their M.O.

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1371108&page=1