Ex-Naughty Dog animator: "ND's games success is due in large part to Sony's deep pocket funding delays rather than skill alone"
- Thread starter Lant_War
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I wouldn't say Sony paying for delays is the reason why they're the best studio in the world, probably more down to talent?
I think his point is that, a lot of the people there at ND now were not his co-workers. Most of the people he worked with left, and they've been replaced by an army of younger, less seasoned devs, hence his comment about the talent there now
not every AAA, Nintendo do more with less meaning spending less, they do not have to sell a million to make even like other AAA
Not many?
I can't really think of many AAA studios on that budget level, that are afforded long delays, that churn out bad games.
with who? Fans?
Says alot about how off base some of the people play games are. Let them show their ass, will be easier for this person to block them.
?
What the hell does this have to do with what I posted? I was replying to the title of thread which is "ND's game success is due in large part to Sony's deep pocket funding delays rather than skill alone" my reply was in reference to days gone being a mediocre game but still having Sony's backing.
He never said a more talented team. He is saying that a more experienced team could have optimized the work better, don't know what outrageous about it
You're missing the entire point of his thread. It's that instead of facilitating talent retention, ND hires a lot of inexperienced contractors and Sony throws money at them.
It's one of the things that leads to crunch when work that would be completed by more experienced individuals is being done by those that aren't.
I see the first party brigade in full meltdown mode. Yalls should read the full thread he posted.
Whilst budget and support is of course important, a more senior team with a bigger budget and dev team size wouldn't necessarily equal more success, see games like Anthem, Fallout 76, Mass Effect Andromeda etc. Were that true, big budget games by more established studios would be of the quality and acclaim of ND titles, but they aren't.
The guy isnt saying that TLOU2 is going to be a bad game!
And there are some parts of it (such as that several people had to take stress-related hospitalizations) that are very VERY serious.
This is apparently because ND is notorious for crunch and it's difficult to hire top talent with games experience and so they've filling spots with people with film experience.
Um why? He has a very legitimate point and ND looks absolutely awful if everything he says is true.
I believe that someone who whistleblows stuff like this isn't worried about getting employed on triple A again. He's probably done with that shit.
why is he throwing his previous co-workers under the bus?
how do you figure he throwing them under a bus, sometimes the truth is just the truth I am not saying he is right but just saying when ever someone say the opposite people first assumption they throwing the other person under the bus
I can't think of another industry that's so relentless in pushing the envelope and moving technology forward while at the same time being so horribly stuck in the past.
Thread summary:
1) Naughty Dog crunch has gotten them a bad rep in the LA area
2) they're having trouble retaining talent as a result
3) this means less experienced people (like animators) end up getting contracted to do the work
4) this means the games take longer to come out vs. games done by senior people, which further adds to crunch
5) Sony bankrolling and putting up with delays is a big reason why the games ultimately turn out well under these circumstances
Did I get that right?
1) Naughty Dog crunch has gotten them a bad rep in the LA area
2) they're having trouble retaining talent as a result
3) this means less experienced people (like animators) end up getting contracted to do the work
4) this means the games take longer to come out vs. games done by senior people, which further adds to crunch
5) Sony bankrolling and putting up with delays is a big reason why the games ultimately turn out well under these circumstances
Did I get that right?
Yes because the horrible crunch culture burns experienced people out and they are replaced by people who do not have enough experience to do it as efficiently and fast as them. Thus people being replaced and it taking longer/costing more.
That was quite apparent in Jason article about the iteration process and how it helps create new things and polish others... but adds a ton of extra work with things.
This has been known for years. Sony rely on focus testing and tried & tested "formulaic" game design more than just about any other publisher.
You're just hearing it from the horse's mouth now.
You're just hearing it from the horse's mouth now.
Nintendo is an outlier - not the norm.
Though I get your point.
Why would we want that?
Era fucking kills me with the performative support for game developers and taking a stand against crunch until it's their favorite developer/publisher.
This is just awful to hear. I was hoping that the Cyberpunk, Doom, and TLoU2 delays over the last few months of 2019 meant that we were avoiding crunch and giving the teams time to finish up those games the right away. Afraid to say this isn't the case, and it's just prolonged crunch.
I would love to hear a comparison to Respawn, who shipped a game in Jedi Fallen Order that was very playable but definitely had its rough edges and issues at launch. Were they doing similar levels of crunch, or did they decide against it and just plan to address stuff after it went gold?
I would love to hear a comparison to Respawn, who shipped a game in Jedi Fallen Order that was very playable but definitely had its rough edges and issues at launch. Were they doing similar levels of crunch, or did they decide against it and just plan to address stuff after it went gold?
yeah the entire thread he writes up sounds less harsh on the devs and animators. but man, what a crazy read
Among the Twitter thread is ND threatening to withhold his paycheck, members of the team needing weeks of recovery time after intense crunch to complete the September demo, and a good friend of his being hospitalized due to the same September demo crunch.
Lol I was making a joke. People like to ignore this shit if the game is good.
We have threads like this all the time and people always say "oh well I'm sure it will be worth it if the game is good!" which honestly disgusts me. I was trying to be sarcastic and I guess I failed, but anyway, my sentiments to the junior staff and their horrific crunch. Hope shit changes.
the game is linear it allows for more graphics to be seen vs witcher Which have to render a lot of things
He's saying a more senior team wouldn't have taken as long. With as high of a turnover rate as Jason said, I can see why he's saying that.
I don't think there's an agenda. With Jason speaking about this now, this is a good time for him as well.
Maybe read the thread and not just the one tweet. He's saying ND cant keep their seniors because theyre being burned out and time gets lost teaching too many juniors that are hired to make up for it. He didnt trash his ex colleagues.