Development Hell - For those games that are/were in the thin line on getting scrapped or getting a release date.

[Nicholas II of Russia]

Let's talk about games that are or were in Development Hell.

What is Development Hell? In short, are projects that for whatever reason, they're stuck in the middle of early development and it can last months or even years before it gets a significative update. Probably the most famous example of this in videogames was Duke Nukem Forever, which was in development for almost 15 years. Going into different graphics, directors, even in planned consoles.

Here was in the early stages of development.



And this was the final product. (and it sucked, a lot.)

Probably one of the most famous examples of Development Hell right now is the development of Hollow Knight's DLC, Silksong. Which was announced in February 14, 2019. Which was received with massive fanfare and hype. But after small updates and a delayed release in 2023, there has not been any information about the game and its release date, some are even unofficially saying that the DLC is cancelled, despite the insistence of the devs saying that they're still working on it.

In my opinion, the game will not come out, considering the lack of updates and the silence by the devs, either they fucked up on something or they just don't know what to do with the project Well, I was wrong, the game has an official release date since he last Nintendo Direct.

What are another examples of games going into development hell? Do you have a game that you want to play but the release date is not existent?

 

[Vyse Inglebard]

For a game that just escaped from development hell....

took 7 years and a changing of studios to get to this point.

 

[Ibanez RG 350EX]

For a game that emerged successful from development hell, planning for Resident Evil 4 started right after Resident Evil 2 was released. The original concept was too different and ended up being spun off as Devil May Cry, Resident Evil 3 got promoted from a side project to mainline game because development was going so badly, and they ended up scrapping work from at least two other concepts for the game.

RE4 started development in the heyday of the PS1 and didn't see release until the latter days of the sixth gen consoles.

 

[Colon capital V]

Mother 4/Oddity/whichever "EarthBound continuation" fangame there is is never coming out, lul

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

If STALKER 2 ever gets a true release date, I genuinely believe the world will end the day before.

 

[Peanut Butter in Peril]

For a game that just escaped from development hell....
View attachment 6423796
took 7 years and a changing of studios to get to this point.

I'm terrified at what all of that could possibly do to this game.

Mother 4/Oddity/whichever "EarthBound continuation" fangame there is is never coming out, lul

I thought I heard there was some drama with the team lead or something and there was also an extremely early build that got leaked. Nintendo nuking AM2R didn't help the situation either.

 

[ShiftyBoi]

For a game that just escaped from development hell....
View attachment 6423796
took 7 years and a changing of studios to get to this point.

I don't care if that game turns out mid, more metroid in this constant battle royale/remake vomit market is what keeps me going.

 

[Dysnomia]

That Vampire Masquerade game that went through a bunch of studios and now it looks like you'll be playing as an edgy genderblob with bad fashion sense. I've been watching the thread and it looks horrible. What kind of name is Phyre? A 13 year old mallgoth from 2005 could have come up with a better name. Anyway, if it ever comes out it looks like it will suck and piss off fans. I was looking through the thread because I was interested in Bloodlines. It's just very disappointing all around.

Stop making games for people who will never play them. You know that old saying "You've got to dance with the one that brought you"? Maybe it's time to start taking that to heart.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Development Hell is why you shouldn't always blame the publisher for a games failings. Some devs will work on something infinitely.

I didn't know about Silk Song, so I guess that makes Star Citizen the second most famous game currently in development hell. It raised millions via Kickstarter in 2010-2012 (I don't know exactly when it was) with a release date of 2014, and even the small single player mini-campaign isn't out yet.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Star Citizen

Star Citizen is usually blamed for feature bloat which is a common cause for development hell. Devs promise features that seem simple at the time but turn out to require massive changes in design and programming setting the project back massively.

Another common issues are perfectionist director which can cause development to be restarted for no real reason, copyright hell, or just general lack of vision in corporate leading to a Concord situation where the same project is just thrown around until someone manages to finish it.

 

[Namesarehardtocomeupwith]

Development Hell is why you shouldn't always blame the publisher for a games failings. Some devs will work on something infinitely.

I didn't know about Silk Song, so I guess that makes Star Citizen the second most famous game currently in development hell. It raised millions via Kickstarter in 2010-2012 (I don't know exactly when it was) with a release date of 2014, and even the small single player mini-campaign isn't out yet.

Long development time for kickstater game is not a bug, it's a feature. Ashes of Creation is on it's 8 years of development and last month they announced that they'll be charging people 120$ for access to alpha 2. Worth noting that they also charged around 100$ for the previous alpha test and presumably will be doing the same for the beta. Not to mention all the fomo cash item they're selling for a game that isn't even out yet.

Kickstarter and early access is a bane on gaming. Nowadays company want your money to make a game and want your money again to help them test it.

 

[NotYourAverageNigga]

I think that any mention of indie games should be banned in this thread , because if that doesnt happen the thread will quickly turn to shit because of retarded tranny slop no one gives a fuck about, aaa only, please.
Now back to the main subject of the thread, you cannot go any further without mentioning this absolute classic.
Was it too much hype? team too small? fake promises? lack of funding? not enough time? who knows...
But its clear that they thought they could bite more off than they could chew, turns out that adding a gorillion different planets each with their own species, plants, gimmicks and full on multiplayer with lots of customization and space fights is not something that can be achieved by such a small team (who never ever made anything like that before) in such a small time.
The game soon premiered and was quickly overriden with bad reviews.
no cool mechs, no gorillion planets, no spaceship wars, not even a functional multiplayer, and of course , glitches , lots of them. oh yeah and cant forget the delays, delay, after delay, after delay.
it eventually got to the point where the developers just decided to completely disappear off the face of the earth.
The story keeps going but if you want to see a much better explanation and to find out what lies ahead you can watch this video from the internet historian.

 

[Cat tit bingo]

Another success that experienced development hell was Team Fortress 2. Nowadays it's hard to imagine Tf2 without its incredible retro 60s Americana artstyle but that was only finalized relatively late in its long development. Originally it was closer in style to the original mods and classic but much more focused on realism.

Eventually this Brotherhood in Arms version was scraped and they pivoted to a steampunk scifi war of the world version known as Invasion. One team played as humans while the other where aliens and it apperatetly had lots of complex RTS elements that bogged the whole game down so it to was scraped


It really shows how much a game can change in development and the value of keeping your mouth shut during the process, though valves constant leaks kinda made that moot.
The shift from the team fortress mods and classic was already incredibly jarring but gritty alien apocalypse seems way to far, then again Tf2 has shit like haunted gaint eyeballs, wizards, sentient bread in space, Australian super men and Abraham Lincoln

 

[Blindeye]

it eventually got to the point where the developers just decided to completely disappear off the face of the earth.

True up until this, not only did the devs not vanish after release, they never stopped updating the game for free with huge expansions multiple times a year, in fact it just got another update that adds fishing and more stuff with water about 2 weeks ago. It's an unusual success story of overcoming development hell and scope bloat, most other devs would've taken the money and ran, but now No Man's Sky is generally viewed positively and rehabilitated their image after adding basically everything they initially promised, and doing it entirely via free updates rather than scummy DLC.

 

[herefortheactualthreads]

dead island 2 supposed to came out on 2015 but dragged itself until april 2023, which was still an okay co-op game, but with 12 to 14 hours of playtime, not really worthy of 60 bucks.

 

[WTBOnlineFather]

What's going on with Deltarune? For a game with such a rabid and autistic fanbase I'm almost convinced it's never coming out. It's been what, 6 years already? The demos were nice but Toby Fox seems to be staying radio silent, there's no sign of any release date even being announced let alone reached, and the project seems to be suffering from scope creep given how many people I've heard are working on it now.

 

[herefortheactualthreads]

What's going on with Deltarune? For a game with such a rabid and autistic fanbase I'm almost convinced it's never coming out. It's been what, 6 years already? The demos were nice but Toby Fox seems to be staying radio silent, there's no sign of any release date even being announced let alone reached, and the project seems to be suffering from scope creep given how many people I've heard are working on it now.

bro probably fell under the pressure of making something similar to undertale.

 

[Xev]

The whole Anthem saga was gay as fuck. They kept adding the flying and taking it out. They had no clue what kind of game they were even making until like 1.5 years before it's release or some shit. Pure corporate autism.

 

[Judge Dredd]

now No Man's Sky is generally viewed positively and rehabilitated their image after adding basically everything they initially promised

I keep hearing that, but is it still a grind where you farm rocks for fuel to go to another planet to farm rocks for fuel, until you reach the centre of the universe where nothing happens? I remember that being the main criticism, and still seems to be the case for the game.

I wouldn't say Anthem or No Man's Sky were in development hell. They could be, but they seem to be more a victim of over promising and under delivering. I associate development hell with games that take forever to be made. Maybe I have the definition wrong though?

What's going on with Deltarune? For a game with such a rabid and autistic fanbase I'm almost convinced it's never coming out. It's been what, 6 years already? The demos were nice but Toby Fox seems to be staying radio silent, there's no sign of any release date even being announced let alone reached, and the project seems to be suffering from scope creep given how many people I've heard are working on it now.

It could be.

Bit off topic, but very successful games that relied on a gimmick struggle to make a sequel. Silent Hill 2 is my go-to example, because the twist ending was the main reason that game is so fondly remembered. This puts the sequels in an impossible place where they can't really have a twist ending since everyone is expecting it. Undertale was a big hit because it was one of the wave of meta games that messed around with files on your PC. Now that trick has been done, what does the game have? Not much, because people will be going in expecting the game to mess with files on your PC and remember multiple runs.


Back on topic. Interstellar Marines. A sci-fi tactical squad sim made by a small team. There's a short documentary here.

I feel bad about this one because the devs heart seemed to be in the right place, they just struggled with money and events outside their control. As a result it's been about 20 years and, as far as I know, the lead dev is still chipping away at it when he can.

 

[WTBOnlineFather]

Now that trick has been done, what does the game have? Not much, because people will be going in expecting the game to mess with files on your PC and remember multiple runs.

I think contrary to Toby's own statements the main selling point for a sequel/spinoff/prequel/whatever the fuck he wants it to be to Undertale is not so much the hidden game mechanics but to take advantage of the massive amount of theorizing that's been going on since the Undertale demo and shed more light on what the fuck's going on with the characters. Everyone wants to know where the fuck is Sans, what's up with Asgore, what's their relation to the new Deltarune characters and all that. No one's buying Toby's disclaimers that the game is totally divorced from the Undertale story.

Also let's be real the gameplay is still pretty fun thanks to it being the right mix of challenging but also extremely straightforward at the same time.