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Kotaku: The Story Behind Mass Effect: Andromeda's Troubled Five-Year Development
- Thread starter kulapik
- Start date
You generally do it because you think your long term results will be way better than your short-to-mid-term pain.
EA can put more developers on Frostbite than Epic has staff including all their game teams, so you eventually get way ahead of that.
Rumours says that is Bioware answer to Destiny.
You will know more about it very, very soon.
fargofallout
Member
What a bummer. And as the article mentioned, this game released at an absolutely brutal time. If this was 2014, I'd probably at least give it a try. 2017? No way - there are way too many other games I want to play but don't have time for.
Also, I'm surprised the mock reviews were so much better than actual reviews.
Also, I'm surprised the mock reviews were so much better than actual reviews.
This just makes it all the more clear that EA should've let them do MEA2 IMO. Should've listened to their employees, fixed the management and resource problems and given them a second chance.
Sounds like one of the main problems with animation (besides the animation team being horribly understaffed, Frostbite not having good animation tools and the tech side being a bit of a mess) was the story still being worked on until very late in the process, though. You can't animate scenes that haven't been written yet.
Sounds like one of the main problems with animation (besides the animation team being horribly understaffed, Frostbite not having good animation tools and the tech side being a bit of a mess) was the story still being worked on until very late in the process, though. You can't animate scenes that haven't been written yet.
With the amount of crunching and people being overworked, I'm really sad that the game ended up being such an incomplete turd. I'd rather they had cancelled the game before the game went into crunch hell.
Honestly, I don't understand why they'd go ahead with 1) full production before the tools were ready, 2) bring in writers very late in the process, 3) start outsourcing in order to force the issue and, 4) ask for little to no music as if they skimped on it. 5) Trust mock reviews when the game obviously was flawed to hell and back.
Seems to me that they should have put it on hold until it was ready to go into full production or just cancel it.
Honestly, I don't understand why they'd go ahead with 1) full production before the tools were ready, 2) bring in writers very late in the process, 3) start outsourcing in order to force the issue and, 4) ask for little to no music as if they skimped on it. 5) Trust mock reviews when the game obviously was flawed to hell and back.
Seems to me that they should have put it on hold until it was ready to go into full production or just cancel it.
DeadlyParasite
Member
It took them 5 years because (as was clearly stated in the article) an unfocused vision that catastrophically affected all other elements of the project (they aimed for no mans sky when they in the end they knew they should've stuck with what worked in the trilogy gameplay-wise). They have the vision now: Andromeda Galaxy, world-building in heleus, an established roster of characters, and combat/driving mechanics that work well.
So no, I don't think taking an existing framework and making it better for a sequel is somehow equivalent to the mess that is trying to build a procedural game from the ground up for 3 years.
Except that's not the case? The article very clearly tells the situation of an audio team that had to deal with complete game reworks right up until launch. It wasn't a matter of them not wanting music, it was a matter of them not having enough time to make a proper video game score amid drastically changing elements of the game. Imagine, if you will, that you're John Paesano and you make this really good track for a level in the game and all of the sudden the level is completely removed from the game because of ongoing development issues. Not only would you lose all that hard work you spend composing, but now you're even closer to launch with nothing to show for it.
Knowing this I actually think the soundtrack is pretty okay for the shit they probably had to deal with.
astroturfing
Member
hmm i remember thinking if using Frostbite for a big RPG really was a wise choice.. i based it on basically nothing but apparently my not-even-close-to-being-informed hunch was correct.
such a shame :/ i really like the game actually, a joy to play and i appreciate the openness. to think it could've been significantly better is a major bummer.
100km by 100km would be 10 000 square kilometers.. so nope lol. what the hell were they thinking..?
such a shame :/ i really like the game actually, a joy to play and i appreciate the openness. to think it could've been significantly better is a major bummer.
100km by 100km would be 10 000 square kilometers.. so nope lol. what the hell were they thinking..?
They don't have to pay to use Frostbite. It's basically what it comes down to.
Suzushiiro
Banned
The thing about the mock reviews being off by 10-15 points because of all the great games that came out between them and the final release is interesting. I think the memes of the terrible animations and other bugs would have hurt it a lot regardless, but the game probably would have been seen as decent if disappointing compared to ME3 and Inquisition rather than a total dumpster fire had it released six months earlier in the same state, and certainly would have done better sales-wise.
Conversely, a shitload of games that released over the first few years of this generation that were considered good or even great would probably have taken a similar 5-15 point hit had they come out around the same time that Andromeda wound up releasing.
Conversely, a shitload of games that released over the first few years of this generation that were considered good or even great would probably have taken a similar 5-15 point hit had they come out around the same time that Andromeda wound up releasing.
paragonpro
Banned
Man it has to suck as a devloper when you realize just how much you need to scale down your baby to make it shippable in a timely manner. Thats game development though, ambition starts out soaring and when you realize it actually has to come out it comes crashing down, i mean look at ffxv for instance. I love the mass effect trilogy and im very sad that they managed to kill mass effect. But if it means we dont get another mass effect game like andromeda, thats probabbly foe the best
MrTroubleMaker
Gold Member
Good article, to bad at what happened 
funkystudent
Member
Wonder how that other game is going since Hudson left.
whalleywhat
Member
I'm pretty sure the answer to this is going to be "no" but is there any chance at all of MEA singleplayer DLC still happening? (If you know/can talk about that.)
Alpha Phoenix
Member
I'm getting DA2 vibes all over again. Really wonder if we're gonna see DLC at this point...
Given Jason's post above, we will presumably see it at E3.
EA's event is on Saturday.
Awesome. I really enjoyed the article,fascinating to read and informative.
I suppose that makes sense, after all if all your studios are using one engine then it cuts down time and money spent on training staff when you inevitably start moving them from one studio to another.
However in this scenario I think the transition was done too early. If non of the tools are ready then they should have stuck with UE until the teething problems had been sorted out. This would have been a far more preferable short term pain as opposed to an immediate clusterfuck.
That's my take away as well.
Okami Haundo
Member
Kudos to Jason for making sure this story got out there! It always bums me out to see a hyped game get attacked as if the developers "wanted" it to be bad or middling. Really looking forward to reading his book!
TylerDurden4321
Member
Frostbite the F1 car of game engines ;D ...idk
but a really good read, thanks for sharing, OP. Would have overlooked this.
but a really good read, thanks for sharing, OP. Would have overlooked this.
They had to build a ton back when they started, yes. I imagine it's pretty solid for RPG development by now, or at least much, much closer.
Though Unreal Engine 4 also had large teething problems, which is why we're only recently seeing any games on it, and open worlds for example were one of the biggest issues with it as well.
Unreal Engine 3 was also basically a nightmare for doing stuff like Batman: Arkham Knight, so sticking with that wasn't a great option either.
Unreal Engine 3 was also basically a nightmare for doing stuff like Batman: Arkham Knight, so sticking with that wasn't a great option either.
I don't know for sure but I don't think so.
E3 will be fun.
Great article Jason! Its sad to see an IP like Mass Effect get hit by ambitious ideas with a lack of resources. Man... Frostbite... As impressive as it is for the Battlefield franchise, makes you wonder if they'll stick with it for other genres or just bite the bullet and go back to Unreal Engine.
I really hope ME makes a comeback one day.
I really hope ME makes a comeback one day.
Great story, Jason.
I don't know how you could have confidence in any EA project after this. It gives me a grudging admiration for how many projects Ubisoft is able to push out the door.
The saddest part to me was at the beginning. They had a very good idea for a prequel story, and they canned it because of polling their audience. That kind of move just shows how bereft creatively this entire project was.
I don't know how you could have confidence in any EA project after this. It gives me a grudging admiration for how many projects Ubisoft is able to push out the door.
The saddest part to me was at the beginning. They had a very good idea for a prequel story, and they canned it because of polling their audience. That kind of move just shows how bereft creatively this entire project was.
DeadlyParasite
Member
Ow, my heart. I'll be really sad if we're really going to be left with all these loose-ends.
And then having the meme train shit all over it. What a huge bummer.
There's a lot here that sounds similar to the problems they had in DAII, where the city and surrounding areas were supposed to be much larger in scope and were scaled waaaaaay back to make the release date. Neither that game or ME:A should have seen the light of day on their original release dates.
And I took part in it of course. I'm no better than any other troll on the internet. It's really sad. Being a game dev dealing with these hateful posts on a daily basis must be fucking hard.
Thanks for the insight, great read as usual.
family_guy
Member
Awesome reporting Jason! It really just sounds like this game is on EA. When the new studio was struggling this much to make the game it should have just been canceled three years ago. Assigning a new studio and a new engine to Mass Effect was a bad decision in hindsight.
I disagree with this slightly, while the release date on DAII was obviously too early, that game was fantastic in everything you care about except the repeat environments. Story, characters, dialogue, combat, graphics all were a step up from Origin. I think Bioware did a pretty good balancing act to get that game out in the time frame required.
I disagree with this slightly, while the release date on DAII was obviously too early, that game was fantastic in everything you care about except the repeat environments. Story, characters, dialogue, combat, graphics all were a step up from Origin. I think Bioware did a pretty good balancing act to get that game out in the time frame required.
DevilDog
Member
Experienced Walters.
Suzushiiro
Banned
the only acceptable gif in this thread.
VincentMatts
Member
Because they gave it to a B studio expecting AAA results.
The_Darkest_Red
Member
Jason is the best thing to ever happen to Kotaku. Fantastic article.
This will be the bane of every Dylan thread during E3...and also probably the best thing about them.