News

Flagship Studio's problems become public
Posted: 11.06.2008 03:53 by Kres Comments: 4

Flagship audio and gameplay programmer Guy Somberg has published a new update on his blog which publicly admits the on-going problems with Hellgate, it appears that programmers, accountants, artist and HR people have started to leave the team. It doesn't end there either.

Work is depressing right now. Never mind the fact that Hellgate isn’t as popular as anybody had hoped. Never mind the fact that there exists a term “Flagshipped,” meaning where a company basically overpromises and then screws you. Never mind the fact that the forums are totally populated by people who do nothing but complain and talk about how much the game sucks. Never mind the fact that people do the same thing in the game itself.

Yes, Hellgate is not a big success. That sucks, and it’s depressing. I’m keeping a positive attitude about it because of Korea and China. The Koreans really love the game, and the Chinese have yet to see it. I don’t know how any of these deals are structured, but I’m hinging my hopes for Hellgate’s future on the Asian market.

So why is work depressing? (Other than all of those other depressing things, that is.) The reason is that people are leaving. In droves, they’re leaving. We’ve had programmers, accountants, HR people, and artists leave. The founders are all still around, but they’ve been floating away from Hellgate to work on various other projects. The only one still actively on Hellgate is Tyler, but Tyler’s not programming anymore; he spends all of his time on management activities.

Today was our programming intern’s last day; he’s leaving the company for the world of academia to get his PhD in computer science. I also learned today that another of our programmers is leaving in a couple of months (he gave lots of notice, which is very nice of him). With him leaving, I am basically the senior developer on Hellgate. Tyler, Dave, and Peter (the founders) are the only other programmers who were around beforehand, and I was the first programming hire after that. With Dave and Peter on other projects, and Tyler basically no longer a programmer, I’m what’s left after he leaves.

It wasn't a very good idea to broadcast the issues that are happening within the Flagship studio offices, and I'm sure Somberg will be thinking that this morning.
Digg
N4G
Del.icio.us

User Comments

By Kres (SI Elite) on Jun 11, 2008
Kres
Yep, that sounds terrible and depressing. Do hope they hit some luck, though if the game sucks, well they'll hardly be able to recover. I didn't played it myself
By JamieSI (SI Core) on Jun 11, 2008
JamieSI
Well, I think it comes down to rushing for release. Perhaps if they could have took the ideas from Blizzard, taking there time to insure that the game didn't have any bugs, which was its downfall.
By Wowerine (SI Elite) on Jun 11, 2008
Wowerine
They really are of bad luck! I think the game itself isn't that bad at all! It just needs a bit more understanding and patience, the only thing that can get on your nerves is the bugs, and the absence of music background (well, there is one, but sucks!)... Better luck next time!1
By FoolWolf (SI Core) on Jun 12, 2008
FoolWolf
Sad, but I'm not at all suprised. The game itself is rather repetetive and soul-less but can give you some fun money-grabbing action but well, I had expected far more as they say, I felt Flagshipped.
The problem witht he forums they should be happy it isn't worse, several people from Europe who signed on couldn't access the forums at all and all the mails one sends to the support team is not answered so well...

The rats are leaving a sinking ship. I hope that the good swimmers will land safely in other studios with a hardearned lesson in mind.