foxtail said:
curl-6 said:
That would account for a lot of the people who left, but there were quite a few who departed Prime midway through. For example, IGN's article credits James Dargie as a source, saying he did modelling, texturing, UI, and animation for the game, but left partway through, and was not credited in the final game as much of his work was redone by others.
Another told IGN that the situation in late 2000 early 2001 was pretty bad:
"Over time I became amazed at the sense of paranoia that permeated everything at Retro. There were security cameras mounted every twenty feet in our halls, and it was common knowledge that they were for keeping track of the employees rather than protecting against anyone breaking in. Apparently the network administrator had to provide a daily sheet detailing the Internet use of every employee." Our source continues, "We were micromanaged on little things like how long we took for lunch. Retro had made a big point of hiring seasoned industry veterans to work there, but there was a major drawback to that: they had a company full of people who knew they could get better jobs elsewhere, and they often did. The common line was that employees were 'not staying at Retro in droves'. It was not uncommon to have new employees leave two or three weeks after starting. It honestly felt a little like living in a communist block country: you kind of didn't know who to trust, who would rat on you, that sort of thing."
http://au.ign.com/articles/2004/12/18/a-retrospective-the-story-of-retro-studios?page=8
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I don't know but that quote makes whoever is saying it seem a little hyperbolic and paranoid, but maybe with some reason.
I think once development hit a certain mark people stopped being paranoid and things went smoother for the solidified team.
Here's an excerpt from Mike Sneath, who was a senior artist on Metroid Prime and his interview with shinesparkers.net below:
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ShineSparkers.net:
You were working on Metroid Prime from the very start to the very end of development. Tell us about the highs and lows of your time working on the game, and how you and the rest of the team felt during those times?
Mike Sneath:
The hardest part of working on Metroid was all the stuff that was going on with the other projects in the company. People were being laid off every few months and games were being cut or threaten to be cut. That was the low for me because it’s very stressful to go work when you’re wondering if you might be the next person to be let go. I think that was the low for alot of people on the team too because it wasn’t until we got to about the half way point in the development when we finally knew that ok we are going to finish this and everything is going to be ok.
When Nintendo told us that we had to show a playable level for E3 from that point on everything got feeling good about working on Metroid. The reason that was high point for me is because when publisher tells your team they want to show the game you’re working on at E3 then you know they’re happy with the project.
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It still sounds like it was quite a difficult production cycle, and the quality of the finished product shows that a tough development doesn't necessarily mean a bad game.
Volterra_90 said:
I was thinking, although I really love the inclusion of alternate paths, if it could affect reviews. I mean, I won't be surprised if some reviews say that the game lasts 2/3 hours (maybe?) without exploring new paths and playing the alternative levels. |
I'm expecting a Metacritic rating in the 70s personally, though that won't affect my decision to purchase either way.
