Lately I've been reading about Velvet Assassin and its failure to impress with its aiming, etc., and it occurs to me that this sort of problem occurs for a variety of reasons, some of them perhaps not as clear to me as others. In this particular case, I've heard mentioned that it's a smaller developer with a poor track record, which implies that perhaps this company simply doesn't have the talent to pull off a good interface/control-scheme.
But then we have other examples, such as Too Human, which was created by a "solid" developer who should have been able to make the interface really shine. Perhaps in that case it was a rushed development schedule... no, that title was in development for a long time. Attempt to blaze a new interface trail that most users just couldn't grasp? Possibly, and I've heard many people who bought the game claim that the player "just had to get used to the novel controls".
A third example is Warhawk (feel free to throw in any Wii/PS3 motion-control titles that fail from a control perspective). This was an early PS3 title and the pressure may have been on to "show off use of the 6-axis". The question here is, could the 6-axis controls on this game have been better, or was the idea of trying to fly something by moving that particular controller flawed at a fundamental level? What I've heard from users is that the controls for this game work, but not very well.
Having developed a broad range of software over 30 years, I have to wonder what transpires at some of these companies when this sort of issue occurs. Does Quality-Control/Testing keep pushing back on development until management finally says they're out of time and they just need to ship or go bust? Do the testers get so good at the "novel" controls that they become blind to the learning curve that will be required of a typical user? Does management at the company believe that shovelware will sell no matter how badly the interface is implemented? Do schisms arise within the company, to the point where one part of the staff believes the controls are great while another part believes the controls are dead in the water?
I'm curious to know if anyone has any first or second-hand knowledge regarding this issue.
EDIT: I meant Lair, not Warhawk, above. Sorry.
