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Reporter Paul Arzt is in Montreal this week, covering the Montreal International Game Summit 2007. He kicks off his coverage with a report on BlackSite: Area 51 designer Harvey Smith's postmortem of his game, which garnered mixed reviews.
The first time Harvey Smith came to Montreal he had just finished his work as lead designer on the acclaimed classic, Deus Ex. On this trip, his last game was Blacksite: Area 51, a game published by Midway which one critic called "a major disappointment."
"This project was so fucked up," said Smith, by way of explanation.
Smith spent the last few minutes of his speech on a postmortem of the game. In part, he blames himself for Blacksite's less-than-warm critical reception.
Before it was released, Blacksite garnered some fame for its political message. It wasn't going to just give a general statement on morality or politics: Blacksite was supposed to be a first person shooter with a satirical look at the war in Iraq, the treatment of veterans and the whole military industrial complex. However, it was only in the last twelve months of work on the game that those political themes took shape.
At first, the game just didn't intrigue Smith. "I wasn't excited about this Area 51 game," he said. While making the game, Smith was overseeing two projects, and Area 51 was not his favorite. That didn't help, and he accepts some fault. "We got hammered so hard, and we deserved it."
"Everyone was forced to share tech. It took eight months to get one thing working." He wouldn't specify what that one thing was, but did note that technical problems set the team back, time and time again. Another of Smith's complaints was "the fact that we had four days to orange box something," meaning to fix and polish a level. Smith called this "completely reprehensible."
That lack of polish, of being able to sit with a final product and make sure it is up to the standards they wanted, was one of the biggest problems for Blacksite and for Smith. "With a year to go, the game was disastrously off rails." There were long delays just getting Blacksite playable, and once it was he says, "it went straight from alpha to final."
In contrast, once Deus Ex was completed, Smith says the team spent six months playing the game just to make sure everything was right.
Smith doesn't, however, think what happened with Blacksite is another example of developers fighting against corporate demands. When asked why he would be so open about the faults of the game so soon after it launched, Smith's response was, "I believe in personal accountability."
Even though he accepts his own faults with the design process, Smith still thinks the game was underrated. "I would give it an 80," he says, claiming the gameplay is still fun and that the contemporary political satire sets it apart from most games.
He's also confused how so many could ignore, or not appreciate, the satire. After describing one scene in which the player fights back a horde of military veterans turned to monsters by the United States, all of them under a banner reading, "Veterans Memorial," Smith asked, "how can you look at all these elements and not think this is super fucking subversive?"
Smith himself may appreciate Blacksite's subversion, but it's obvious the game didn't have the same meaning to many reviewers and players. The game only got a GameRankings average of 69%. In part, Smith knew that reaction was coming: the low scores, he admits, were "no surprise."
http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/11/montreal-2007-h.html
Basically they didn't have time to put in emergence holes cause it needed to be done by christmas.
The first time Harvey Smith came to Montreal he had just finished his work as lead designer on the acclaimed classic, Deus Ex. On this trip, his last game was Blacksite: Area 51, a game published by Midway which one critic called "a major disappointment."
"This project was so fucked up," said Smith, by way of explanation.
Smith spent the last few minutes of his speech on a postmortem of the game. In part, he blames himself for Blacksite's less-than-warm critical reception.
Before it was released, Blacksite garnered some fame for its political message. It wasn't going to just give a general statement on morality or politics: Blacksite was supposed to be a first person shooter with a satirical look at the war in Iraq, the treatment of veterans and the whole military industrial complex. However, it was only in the last twelve months of work on the game that those political themes took shape.
At first, the game just didn't intrigue Smith. "I wasn't excited about this Area 51 game," he said. While making the game, Smith was overseeing two projects, and Area 51 was not his favorite. That didn't help, and he accepts some fault. "We got hammered so hard, and we deserved it."
"Everyone was forced to share tech. It took eight months to get one thing working." He wouldn't specify what that one thing was, but did note that technical problems set the team back, time and time again. Another of Smith's complaints was "the fact that we had four days to orange box something," meaning to fix and polish a level. Smith called this "completely reprehensible."
That lack of polish, of being able to sit with a final product and make sure it is up to the standards they wanted, was one of the biggest problems for Blacksite and for Smith. "With a year to go, the game was disastrously off rails." There were long delays just getting Blacksite playable, and once it was he says, "it went straight from alpha to final."
In contrast, once Deus Ex was completed, Smith says the team spent six months playing the game just to make sure everything was right.
Smith doesn't, however, think what happened with Blacksite is another example of developers fighting against corporate demands. When asked why he would be so open about the faults of the game so soon after it launched, Smith's response was, "I believe in personal accountability."
Even though he accepts his own faults with the design process, Smith still thinks the game was underrated. "I would give it an 80," he says, claiming the gameplay is still fun and that the contemporary political satire sets it apart from most games.
He's also confused how so many could ignore, or not appreciate, the satire. After describing one scene in which the player fights back a horde of military veterans turned to monsters by the United States, all of them under a banner reading, "Veterans Memorial," Smith asked, "how can you look at all these elements and not think this is super fucking subversive?"
Smith himself may appreciate Blacksite's subversion, but it's obvious the game didn't have the same meaning to many reviewers and players. The game only got a GameRankings average of 69%. In part, Smith knew that reaction was coming: the low scores, he admits, were "no surprise."
http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/11/montreal-2007-h.html
Basically they didn't have time to put in emergence holes cause it needed to be done by christmas.
