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Joe Shlabotnik · Feb 25, 2013

http://kotaku.com/5986694/from-dream-to-disaster-the-story-of-aliens-colonial-marines

Credit where credit is due--this and the recent superDae article from Stephen Totilo are excellent investigative articles from Kotaku.

According to three people familiar with the project, Gearbox didn't put a lot of work into Colonial Marines between 2007 and 2010. Instead, those people told me, Gearbox chose to focus on Duke Nukem Forever, Borderlands, and Borderlands 2. Colonial Marines was not a priority.

One source told me that when TimeGate got the project, Colonial Marines was "basically a hodgepodge" of assets, including the shader—or lighting processor—from Borderlands. "A lot of assets just didn't seem like they fit there," the source said.

And then there was interference-with three companies involved in decision-making on Pecan, bureaucracy was inevitable. According to one source, Sega's producers wanted Colonial Marines to feel like Call of Duty—in other words, more shooting marines, less shooting aliens. Upper staff at both Gearbox and TimeGate disagreed with this mentality, the source said, and there was a tug-of-war between developer and publisher on how the game should be designed.

And on the demo fiasco:

The demo looked better than the game does because the demo didn't have to be optimized for old hardware. Though these games are created using powerful PCs, any console game has a "performance budget"—the ceiling above which an Xbox 360 or a PS3 cannot go. The Colonial Marines demo was way over performance budget, and the development team had to cut back significantly for the final product.

More at the link. Short version: After the surprise success of Borderlands, Gearbox contracted TimeGate to finish A:CM. Seemed to have little work done themselves after four years. Lots of miscommunication and opposing ideas about the direction of the game between all parties. Demo was real but maximized for high-performance PCs per Gearbox's instructions; Gearbox likely scrapped most or all of it when they tried to make it fit into the PS3/360's architectures.

kaioshade · Feb 25, 2013

Damn, colonial marines seems to be an outright disaster for multiple reasons.

8bit · Feb 25, 2013

Sega were the ones wanting less Aliens and more Marine shooting? Ugh.

bluecapsule · Feb 25, 2013

8bit said:
Sega were the ones wanting less Aliens and more Marine shooting? Ugh.

Let's be honest though, that's not the reason why the game is terrible and took 7 years to develop. Personally I think it's a good idea to have less Aliens, if it makes the alien encounters more memorable. I think blasting 1,000+ aliens kinda lessens the impact.

-Cwalat- · Feb 25, 2013

Demo walkthrough: "Hey, look this is what our game will look like, isn't it badass?!"

Finished product when game launched: "We're sorry..."

subversus · Feb 25, 2013

So the demo is what next-gen will look like?!

Also I like how they failed to make it run at PS3. Dat split memory.

Roo · Feb 25, 2013

Was the Wii U version officially canned?
I read it was postponed indefinitely but I wouldn't be surprised if it was cancelled at this point

Joe Shlabotnik · Feb 25, 2013

bluecapsule said:
Let's be honest though, that's not the reason why the game is terrible and took 7 years to develop. Personally I think it's a good idea to have less Aliens, if it makes the alien encounters more memorable. I think blasting 1,000+ aliens kinda lessens the impact.

But while we're being honest, it's unlikely "fewer Aliens makes the encounters more memorable" was Sega's reasoning either. It's more likely they were nervous about the financial prospects of a game that wasn't Call of Space Duty, which makes one wonder why they bothered buying the Aliens license in the first place, when they could have just made an outer space war game.

Nirolak · Feb 25, 2013

And then there was interference-with three companies involved in decision-making on Pecan, bureaucracy was inevitable. According to one source, Sega's producers wanted Colonial Marines to feel like Call of Duty—in other words, more shooting marines, less shooting aliens. Upper staff at both Gearbox and TimeGate disagreed with this mentality, the source said, and there was a tug-of-war between developer and publisher on how the game should be designed.

While I definitely think Gearbox messed up all sorts of things on this project, stuff like this is why I was never going to completely vilify them before hearing rumors from both sides.

I mean seriously, who would want this in an Aliens game?

Wickerbasket · Feb 25, 2013

bluecapsule said:
Let's be honest though, that's not the reason why the game is terrible and took 7 years to develop. Personally I think it's a good idea to have less Aliens, if it makes the alien encounters more memorable. I think blasting 1,000+ aliens kinda lessens the impact.

Wasn't that what Aliens was about though? Blasting thousands of aliens I mean.

You can have sections with waves of aliens and sections with suspense; it doesn't need to be one or the other.

The levels with the human enemies were the worst of a bad bunch.

But yeah, the execs at Sega are crazy.

Darklord · Feb 25, 2013

8bit said:
Sega were the ones wanting less Aliens and more Marine shooting? Ugh.

It's called ALIENS, people would expect Aliens. I can't understand the logic!

Nibel · Feb 25, 2013

Alistair Roo said:
Was the Wii U version officially canned?
I read it was postponed indefinitely but I wouldn't be surprised if it was cancelled at this point

You will probably see this at this year's Nintendo E3 briefing with a 20 minutes long presentation; Randy and Reggie on stage talking how unique this gem is on the Wii U

LiK · Feb 25, 2013

What a mess.

XPE · Feb 25, 2013

The mentality of publishers wanting games to be more like COD rather than being their respected types of gameplay have been known for a while now, this really isn’t a surprise but its still VERY unfortunate they cant shake this stupid idea that simply making it more like COD will sell more copys =/

I take it this is timegame telling their side of the story.

Medalion · Feb 25, 2013

Alistair Roo said:
Was the Wii U version officially canned?
I read it was postponed indefinitely but I wouldn't be surprised if it was cancelled at this point

That was just a rumor last I heard, there has been no other word what is happening with the Wii-U version?

Skunkers · Feb 25, 2013

The performance budget thing smells like complete and utter horseshit. Either you rushed the game and failed to hit your performance marks or your programmers were incompetent. Or both. You can't sell anybody on that nonsense when the same platforms are able to run Crysis 2 and 3, Battlefield 3, Gears Of War series, Uncharted series, etc. and your game looks worse than some launch titles. AND your title was in development longer than any of those games.

Indrid Cold1 · Feb 25, 2013

Whats with the silly internal codenames for game projects? "Willow" for Borderlands and "Pecan" for Aliens? Is this a Gearbox thing or industry-wide?

Darklord · Feb 25, 2013

Nibel said:
You will probably see this at this year's Nintendo E3 briefing with a 20 minutes long presentation; Randy and Reggie on stage talking how unique this gem is on the Wii U

Aliens: Colonial Marines U: Unembezzled edition.

grimshawish · Feb 25, 2013

8bit said:
Sega were the ones wanting less Aliens and more Marine shooting? Ugh.

The publisher will always push for these sorts of things.
It is up to a studio to prove them wrong and talk them around.

Gearbox were not even working on the game; publishers don't do the work inhouse because they want outside experience and skills. They failed their role here imo.

NullPointer · Feb 25, 2013

And then there was interference-with three companies involved in decision-making on Pecan, bureaucracy was inevitable. According to one source, Sega's producers wanted Colonial Marines to feel like Call of Dutyin other words, more shooting marines, less shooting aliens. Upper staff at both Gearbox and TimeGate disagreed with this mentality, the source said, and there was a tug-of-war between developer and publisher on how the game should be designed.

Sega :/

And then there's the demo. As many angry reporters have pointed out, Gearbox and Sega spent a great deal of time showing off a demo that looks nothing like the final product. People have demanded an explanation, and many have accused Gearbox head Randy Pitchford of misleading his fans.

The truth might not be as malicious as some have speculated. According to a few sources I spoke with, the demo for Colonial Marines was built by TimeGatewith animation assistance by Gearboxand ran in real time. As is standard for E3 demos, it ran on a high-end computer with specs that would be unfeasible for a normal console game.

"We were told many times through demo production, 'Don't worry about performance, just make it awesome,'" said one source. "There was a reason [the demos] were never playable."

This still reads as malicious and manipulative.

Hystzen · Feb 25, 2013

Kotaku finally catches up pretty much every site has done a story of Aliens and what went wrong.

It interesting to see how much flak Gearbox gets but I bet soon they announce borderlands 3 everybody go back to not caring. I still hope Sega try to find a way to take this court or further we need more drama

Beer Monkey · Feb 25, 2013

It's really fucking sad that a game that 20th Century Fox decided to make canon was handled so poorlly.

Jackpot · Feb 25, 2013

One anonymous blogger claiming to be a Sega employee accused Gearbox of lying and breaking agreements with Sega, but we have been unable to verify that, and some of the other blog postslike the story of a drunken barbecue conversation about killing off Soniccall the blogger's validity into question.

GAF deserves credit.

timetokill · Feb 25, 2013

Indrid Cold1 said:
Whats with the silly internal codenames for game projects? "Willow" for Borderlands and "Pecan" for Aliens? Is this a Gearbox thing or industry-wide?

Often so it can be discussed without worrying about information leaking. And because the final title isn't known at the beginning, etc.

Joe Shlabotnik · Feb 25, 2013

All kinds of projects in every industry have random code names for secrecy.

Paul Alexander · Feb 25, 2013

Indrid Cold1 said:
Whats with the silly internal codenames for game projects? "Willow" for Borderlands and "Pecan" for Aliens? Is this a Gearbox thing or industry-wide?

Fairly common in my (limited) experience. Dudes like coming up with random names, usually an inside joke.

jschreier · Feb 25, 2013

Joe Shlabotnik said:
Credit where credit is due--this and the recent superDae article from Stephen Totilo are excellent investigative articles from Kotaku.

Thanks.

Hystzen said:
Kotaku finally catches up pretty much every site has done a story of Aliens and what went wrong.

Finally catches up? Believe it or not, reporting takes time. No other site did the sort of work we did.

Not to mention we posted this story the DAY after Aliens came out: http://kotaku.com/5984068/how-aliens-colonial-marines-fell-apart

Auto_aim1 · Feb 25, 2013

Constant publisher interference is the worst thing that can happen to a studio. I mean, most of the blame goes to Gearbox for being a shameless studio, but I have no idea what Sega was doing all these years.

Nibel · Feb 25, 2013

According to one source, Sega's producers wanted Colonial Marines to feel like Call of Dutyin other words, more shooting marines, less shooting aliens.

"We were told many times through demo production, 'Don't worry about performance, just make it awesome,'" said one source. "There was a reason [the demos] were never playable."

"The game feels like it was made in nine months, and that's because it was."

For fucks sake why does this game exist

Good article, Jason - this is what I want to see from Kotaku

Impeccable · Feb 25, 2013

A lot of Kotaku around these parts these days.

Wish the site was more consistent though, every once in awhile it has a great article but most of the time... :/

Prime crotch · Feb 25, 2013

Yeah this sounds like a good article, and not out of a dubious blogger

Opus Angelorum · Feb 25, 2013

I know film franchises becoming games generally never works out well, but it's so frustrating to see such a great movie license be treated like shit.

Shame on everyone involved with it.

Stumpokapow · Feb 25, 2013

Jason,

Do you have any sources for contractual info--the weirdest thing about this is that it doesn't seem like Sega's contract with Gearbox had a minimum staffing allocation for those first few years before TimeGate was subcontracted.

Remachinate · Feb 25, 2013

Nirolak said:
While I definitely think Gearbox messed up all sorts of things on this project, stuff like this is why I was never going to completely vilify them before hearing rumors from both sides.

I mean seriously, who would want this in an Aliens game?

I always thought the xenomorphs were used most effectively when they are a menacing, hidden presence at the periphery, up until the point that they brutally strike. I'm sure Sega wanted the enemies to be mostly human for all the wrong reasons, but I can definitely see how a story framed as a party trying to shoot their way past human opposition before the aliens hunt down both sides would be a better thematic fit than a xenomorph shooting gallery, which I understand to be closer to the actual game.

RiccochetJ · Feb 25, 2013

That was really the most in depth I've read so far regarding this cluster. Great article!

Nirolak · Feb 25, 2013

Indrid Cold1 said:
Whats with the silly internal codenames for game projects? "Willow" for Borderlands and "Pecan" for Aliens? Is this a Gearbox thing or industry-wide?

I think they're naming them after their UE3 engine variants, since Borderlands runs on the Willow Engine.

Remachinate said:
I always thought the xenomorphs were used most effectively when they are a menacing, hidden presence at the periphery, up until the point that they brutally strike. I'm sure Sega wanted the enemies to be mostly human for all the wrong reasons, but I can definitely see how a story framed as a party trying to shoot their way past human opposition before the aliens hunt down both sides would be a better thematic fit than a xenomorph shooting gallery, which I understand to be closer to the actual game.

That would be an interesting idea, but yeah, unfortunately I doubt that was what they were thinking.

Neuromancer · Feb 25, 2013

According to one source, Sega's producers wanted Colonial Marines to feel like Call of Duty—in other words, more shooting marines, less shooting aliens. Upper staff at both Gearbox and TimeGate disagreed with this mentality

UGH

Gearbox and Timegate partially redeemed.

Malvingt2 · Feb 25, 2013

Alistair Roo said:
Was the Wii U version officially canned?
I read it was postponed indefinitely but I wouldn't be surprised if it was cancelled at this point

Well from the other thread.

Disorientator said:
Is this old?

It was posted @DemiurgeStudios on Feb 21st.

(click pic for higher res)

Maybe a proof/hint that the WiiU version is still in the works?

It seem still on track..

InsaneLuchador · Feb 25, 2013

Jackpot said:
GAF deserves credit.

Seriously glad the witch hunt based solely on that poor article and random blog post seems to have ended.

Lactose_Intolerant · Feb 25, 2013

The only new piece of info here was about it not running on ps3 and the demo being made by timegate. Timegate apparently isn't good at optimizing.

neorej · Feb 25, 2013

Neuromancer said:
UGH

Gearbox and Timegate partially redeemed.

In their defence, Fox was on the same mindset for Alien 5.

ambientmystic · Feb 25, 2013

Indrid Cold1 said:
Whats with the silly internal codenames for game projects? "Willow" for Borderlands and "Pecan" for Aliens? Is this a Gearbox thing or industry-wide?

It's industry wide for games made using a version of the UE3 engine. Usually the the devs use a portion of the game's real name, i.e. DmC was DevilGame, Dishonored was DishonoredGame, Batman: Arkham City was BmGame but some like Square Enix's The Last Remnant port for the PC used a character's name, i.e. RushGame

EDIT:- Beaten by Nirolak

Lime · Feb 25, 2013

Joe Shlabotnik said:
Credit where credit is due--this and the recent superDae article from Stephen Totilo

Uhm, it's by Jason Schreier.

Sir_Crocodile · Feb 25, 2013

Lime said:
Uhm, it's by Jason Schreier.

You might want to parse that sentence again

Radogol · Feb 25, 2013

Lime said:
Uhm, it's by Jason Schreier.

No.

Joe Shlabotnik · Feb 25, 2013

Lime said:
Uhm, it's by Jason Schreier.

http://kotaku.com/5986239/the-rise-and-fall-of-superdae-a-most-unusual-video-game-hacker

by Stephen Totilo.

Sir_Crocodile · Feb 25, 2013

Joe Shlabotnik said:
http://kotaku.com/5986239/the-rise-and-fall-of-superdae-a-most-unusual-video-game-hacker

by Stephen Totilo.

I'm pretty sure he thinks you're crediting Totilo with this ACM article, not the other way round

bluecapsule · Feb 25, 2013

Wickerbasket said:
Wasn't that what Aliens was about though? Blasting thousands of aliens I mean.

You can have sections with waves of aliens and sections with suspense; it doesn't need to be one or the other.

The levels with the human enemies were the worst of a bad bunch.

But yeah, the execs at Sega are crazy.

IIRC, the first Alien movie only really had 1 alien in it and was more horror/suspense than action. The 2nd movie had lots of space marines blasting aliens. The third had no space marines and less action.

GlassBox · Feb 25, 2013

It sounds like all parties share equal blame in this fiasco, though I'm inclined to be more forgiving to Timegate since it sounds like they were just dropped into the frying pan without any good guidance whatsoever.

Joe Shlabotnik · Feb 25, 2013

ALIENS has a lot of aliens (obviously), but it's still pretty slow compared to modern action movies, and glacial compared to a video game. The point in the movie is that the marines are unprepared for and overmatched by what is waiting for them.

You can make a fun game blasting thousands of Aliens but it will necessarily lose the tension and fear the movies draw from.

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