Games Journalism 2022 - NFT, blockchain, crypto ledes!

Seems odd to kick this thread off now, skipping the biggest gaming story in years, but I think the other thread has it covered. Instead, I’ll start this one off with this investigation from Polygon:

Even if you don’t care about developer treatment or crunch, this is pertinent for anyone thinking about picking the game up:

Around the time the project kicked off in late 2017, management made the unpopular decision to develop the game on a new engine called NTT.

Sources tell Polygon that employees inside the studio had been pushing hard for TT to switch to the Unreal Engine, with a small group even creating a Lego Star Wars test in the software. This was well received internally by those who saw it, according to both current and former staff, but management decided to continue developing the project on NTT, in an attempt to avoid paying engine licensing costs — Lego games often ship on a large number of platforms, and each of those adds to the expense. This was despite warnings about some of the problems NTT might cause.

Members of the team say that in practice, when they got their hands on NTT, it was unstable and missing features. Tasks like adding animations that would take two minutes in the old engine could take 10 minutes or longer this time around, depending on how many times the engine crashed. It also resulted in hours of work vanishing if the engine didn’t save properly. New engines typically arrive with teething issues, but several former employees wondered why the company had taken this risk on such a high-profile project.

To add to this, staff say that much of the pre-production on The Skywalker Saga had been done with the old engine in mind. That created problems when trying to implement the game’s design, as assets and animation had to be reexported and reintegrated.

Former staff members say that constant revisions to the design were not uncommon throughout development, and that this resulted in months of lost work. Among these was a new 27-hit combat tree, which was removed after focus tests said that users were only using one button to fight with.

“The director would request new mechanics on a whim, then ask that they be changed, whilst never actually fixing anything that really mattered,” says one former employee. “Read every review of a Lego game. They always say the same [things]: ‘Platforming is pants, the camera is terrible, no online co-op.’ So let’s add a God of War-style combat tree! 5-year-olds will love it.”

Multiple sources close to the company say TT will no longer be using NTT on future projects, finally agreeing to switch to Unreal Engine, which some view as a potential step forward.

A one-and-done new engine, lots of crunch, dissatisfied employees, and mismanagement. TT Lego games were always a bit buggy anyway and that was with a tried-and-true engine, so this is extremely concerning to me.

That’s wild, for sure, but I’m missing the NFT/blockchain connection?

We have all of 2022. It will come!

Oh duh, gotcha! LOL

If y’all want hawt NFT games news, check the Expeditions: Rome thread!

That certainly sucks and is a pretty blatant case of poor management, but to be honest it doesn’t really affect my interest in the game. I mean, I’d have to think now that it’s done and soon to be on the market, the folks who worked on it would probably not want to see it crash and burn.

With the number of licensees already involved in a LEGO Star Wars game it is easy to imagine paying engine fees on top of that is scary.

This one is for @lordkosc -

The Zelda games were my first fishing experience. :)

The Gizmodo Media Group Union went on strike today, with staff at Kotaku, Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Jezebel, Lifehacker, and The Root all halting work and asking people not to visit their sites for the duration of the strike.

The group’s existing contract with G/O Media expired last night, and the union identified a number of issues on which it could not come to an agreement with the company for a new contract.

“Since January 31, the Gizmodo Media Group Union (GMG Union) and G/O’s Media’s outside counsel have met five times,” GMG Union said. “Every session, the company’s outside counsel sidestepped and delayed, refusing to provide written counterproposals to the union’s good-faith proposals. How can you bargain a contract when the people across the table won’t even clearly state what they’re advocating for?”

The union said G/O Media was refusing to add work-from-home flexibility into the contract or commit to keeping its remote workers remote. (Earlier this year, G/O Media saw almost half of The AV Club staff depart when they were given the choice of relocating to Los Angeles or losing their jobs.)

The union also criticized the company as being unwilling to commit to healthcare standards for trans employees, sufficient parental leave, or diversity hiring initiatives, as well as “lowballing” salaries.

“Kotaku staff is [very] trans, non-binary, and genderqueer,” Kotaku editor-in-chief Patricia Hernandez said on Twitter. “I stand with them, and everyone else at G/O Media fighting for better working conditions to make the content that you love.”

Not sure I like Danny’s Morrisey haircut.

People Make Games have produced piece looking at some toxic indie studios. You might remember these guys did the double-header on Roblox predatory practises last year.

Just more ‘big’ personalities treating people like crap and in smaller environments where there is virtually no chance of remediation as the culprits own/run the studios.

All three studios have ties to the same publisher, which in these cases seemed to pretty much play the ‘shrug, nothing we can do’ card.

(Funomena being one of the three studios covered in the above report.)

I liked Wattam for what it’s worth.

In the age of acquisitions, it’s surprising to see a studio shut down. I guess Embracer Group didn’t want them. 111 Studios is enough.

Games journalism gotta games journalism.

Later adding:

That seems like a very low rate?

I remember hearing that IGN was hiring new entry level editorial staff at $35K for full-timers in SF maybe 10 years ago, so the only thing about this that surprises me is that the rate is in the listing.

Only 20 years ago, the starting salary for my job in London in financial journalism, which is the highest paying part of journalism for reporters, was £12k, rising to £19k after six months. Things have improved since, but starting journo pay sucks