Support NeoGAF

[Nirolak]

I'm not sure how else to interpret this.

All in all, Fusion is a huge project, one which RedLynx's 110-strong team have been able to source manpower from another 100 extra Ubisoft staff to support: they've been put to task squashing bugs, powering up servers, and for comparing notes with on the early days of next-gen development. "We were still in the development of Trials Evolution and we saw where the game was heading," Virtala adds. "Even at that stage we had much bigger ambitions, but we saw it would require so many more developers and support in areas where we weren't experts."

It's allowed RedLynx itself to focus on the itself, a decision which seems to be paying off. The version of Fusion I played was pretty much feature complete, and only its online services weren't unavailable (although local multiplayer was just as competitive as ever). And RedLynx is still working. "Our future is defined so much by the perception of our games and nothing is important as the quality of how polished those games are," Virtala concludes. "These final moments - they're so important."

When Trials Fusion launches on 16th April it will be exactly two years since the launch of Trials Evolution, but it's clear that RedLynx plans Fusion's release to only be the game's beginning. I'm looking forward to seeing it completed, but I really can't wait to see what happens after.

Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...possibly-the-last-trials-game-youll-ever-need

 

[charlequin]

Just going to repeat what I said elsewhere about this: even with the rank incompetence of Ubisoft's garbage software production pipeline, I don't understand how a game that's pretty much materially identical to one that took like 15 people to make now takes 210 people.

 

[Leona Lewis]

Ubi-bloated.

 

[Daigoro]

hm interesting. makes sense i guess. feels like a quick turnaround from Evo compared to how long it was between HD and Evo.

hope the quality doesnt suffer. this is the last series id like to see go down the tubes.

maybe because of the whole multiplat thing? no other good reason i can see really...

Just going to repeat what I said elsewhere about this: even with the rank incompetence of Ubisoft's garbage software production pipeline, I don't understand how a game that's pretty much materially identical to one that took like 15 people to make now takes 210 people.

it is odd. more people working on the project making folks more wary of the quality of the game.

dont fuck this franchise up Ubi.

fuck.

 

[Poetic.Injustice]

210 people for something that's not even AAA..Jeez.

 

[Loudninja]

To put that in perspective, Sucker Punch has 80 people and RAD has 110.

I am not sure what to think here.

 

[_woLf]

WHAT...THE...FUCK?

This is exactly what is wrong with the gaming industry.

 

[VanWinkle]

That is absolutely INSANE.

 

[jbug617]

Superannuation said the last Trials game had around 50 people working on it

 

[Twin Tails]

How is that even?

 

[Silky]

but

will the game be good???

Don't get the shock factor. Big team numbers = it HAS to be a AAA title?

 

[chickdigger802]

rip after sales don't meet 100 million copies sold

 

[Sofa King]

Micro transactions confirmed?

 

[BronsonLee]

Ubisoft game?

Business as usual, now!

 

[Some Nobody]

To put that in perspective, Sucker Punch has 80 people and RAD has 110.

Quoting this because it deserves to be mentioned again. Sucker Punch is developing the first next-gen open world game while RAD is developing one of the best-looking console games we currently know of.

Both of which are managing to come in at well under 150 people for their teams. In fact, to put this further into perspective, put together they don't come to this size.

 

[VanWinkle]

but

will the game be good???

Don't get the shock factor. Big team numbers = it HAS to be a AAA title?

Because it's insane. Isn't 210 about the size of the whole Sony Santa Monica studio? (at least, before the layoffs)

 

[GluedOnBeard]

Chances are that is a pretty big testing team, they might even have a separate testing team for the different platforms at Ubi. I know they used to do it that way for Driver.

Then you will have other minor roles. It's not like that is 110 programmers and artists. More than likely throwing people at it to get it out of the door quicker as getting in early on next gen will probably equal more sales for it over the life cycle, then reassign people to other projects.

 

[thekonamicode]

How many people made Doom? I realize this is comparing apples to oranges. I just really love the days of oranges.

*edit*

It looks like 12 people made Doom!

 

[Killthee]

Well that explains the $40 season pass + game retail bundle I saw earlier today.

Micro transactions confirmed?

Yup!

 

[SolidSnakex]

I guess it could just be from them launching simultaneously on four different platforms. The previous Trials games were released on one platform before being ported elsewhere.

 

[Shinta]

All I know is the new trailer completely sold me on the game. Looks very impressive.

 

[Willy Wanka]

Well they have gone from one platform to... a few platforms but it's still a massive number of people compared to the last two games.

 

[Iacobellis]

That number shouldn't be 210. 21 sounds a lot more reasonable.

 

[Loudninja]

I guess it could just be from them launching simultaneously on four different platforms. The previous Trials games were released on one platform before being ported elsewhere.

True and this is their first disc release correct?

That still is quite a lot though.

 

[georly]

Correct me if i'm wrong, but doesn't ubisoft list the entire staff for a department in the credits, even if a chunk of the people in that department literally had nothing to do with the game? It's like they like bloating the credits screen to give as many people credit as possible, even when it's not directly attributed to them. I could be wrong though.

 

[charlequin]

Superannuation said the last Trials game had around 50 people working on it

Trials HD had 50 total people credited on it for everything, including the publisher/platform-holder QA and other secondary business roles.

The actual development team, which would be what's analogous to the number we're looking at here, was 13 people.

https://twitter.com/supererogatory/status/438729401736232960

 

[Nirolak]

Correct me if i'm wrong, but doesn't ubisoft list the entire staff for a department in the credits, even if a chunk of the people in that department literally had nothing to do with the game? It's like they like bloating the credits screen to give as many people credit as possible, even when it's not directly attributed to them. I could be wrong though.

I don't think that's how they would report team size to Eurogamer however.

 

[SteveWinwood]

How in the hell...

Is Ubisoft the government or something now?

 

[Tripon]

I was looking to buy Trials since it was coming to PS4. But a season pass, for this game? Nope.

Edit: The season pass is part of the retail package? I'll just wait for that sucker to drop to $20 then.

 

[CambriaRising]

Ubisoft is going to implode.

 

[watership]

I guess it could just be from them launching simultaneously on four different platforms. The previous Trials games were released on one platform before being ported elsewhere.

This. They would make one game at a time, and took almost a year to bring Evolution to Windows. If Ubi has fucked up this game, I'll be pretty pissed. Evolution was one of the best XBLA games ever.

 

[Slermy]

Compared to Fallout 3, which according to this, was made with 70 people:
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Development_Team

 

[Jigorath]

Very efficient. Ubisoft sure is great at managing resources.

 

[SapientWolf]

It sounds like the other 100 are there for support as needed rather than being full time devs. It's probably a smart idea to use Ubi's available resources rather than trying to go at it alone.

 

[Charcoal]

I'm expecting a AAAA gaming experience

 

[The Flash]

Rooster Teeth will be pleased

 

[panama chief]

then why has it taken so fucking long?

 

[dofry]

 

[SwiftDeath]

Does every dev have an assistant to get them coffee or something?

 

[charlequin]

It sounds like the other 100 are there for support as needed rather than being full time devs.

Still really difficult to understand what those people could possibly be doing with their time though.

 

[Tripon]

Still really difficult to understand what those people could possibly be doing with their time though.

Does Ubisoft have a dedicated support studio/asset slaves studio?

 

[ramuh]

then why has it taken so fucking long?

Got to build them DLC tracks. This is a lot of people though. Hope it lives up.

 

[SapientWolf]

Still really difficult to understand what those people could possibly be doing with their time though.

Common game development tasks that require or benefit from specialized knowledge. Q&A, networking, art asset creation, fixing bugs, optimization, console certification, configuration management, whatever. A big company like Ubi is going to be looking for ways to keep their staff busy and leverage their experience across different projects, and RedLynx would be able to avoid crunch time.

It's pretty common in the industry to merc out experts to get things done quicker.

 

[Moosehole]

Well this is why they raised the price and are selling a season pass. This is also why no matter how many copies of this game are sold it will be considered a failure.

This shit right here is EXACTLY why the game industry is in turmoil. This is why studios close left and right. And it's their own damn doing. It blows my mind that publishers don't understand they are killing themselves.

 

[malfcn]

Never played a Trials game, but seen enough to believe that 200+ people sounds bloated all to hell.

 

[lt519]

I mean some quick math here?

210 employees
like what 50-60k average salary?
typical 1.25 multiplier per employee for taxes & benefits
at 50k salary a person with 210 employees is a burn rate of 1.1m a month.

So are they spending 2+ million in just the two months before release? Hope this game sells well..

 

[enzo_gt]

I mean some quick math here?

210 employees
like what 50-60k average salary?
typical 1.25 multiplier per employee for taxes & benefits
at 50k salary a person with 210 employees is a burn rate of 1.1m a month.

So are they spending 2+ million in just the two months before release? Hope this game sells well..

Seems like a pretty high average salary.

Plus I doubt the workforce is entirely dedicated, probably includes a bunch of uPlay shit that is grouped in.

 

[Neuromancer]

Well it looks great, it's out for a bunch of systems and it has a bunch of new stuff (like a random track generator).

 

[Slavik81]

Just going to repeat what I said elsewhere about this: even with the rank incompetence of Ubisoft's garbage software production pipeline, I don't understand how a game that's pretty much materially identical to one that took like 15 people to make now takes 210 people.

100 people digging holes.
100 people filling in holes.
10 people meaningfully working.

 

[KarmaCow]

I wonder if they'll be shocked when the game doesn't sell a bagillion copies to make up for it.