Barkley 2 ex-dev discloses horrible management practices, development practically dead - The Promise Is Broken

Considering it's not a real property per se, there's the long-odds hope that someone with both the vision and talent who's NOT related to the original project will just make something and be like, "fuck it, this is Shut Up & Jam 2, no one can stop me!"
 
  • Optimistic
Reactions: Irwin M. Felcher and Bean Cheese
Bean Cheese said:

A scouring of the game development reveals that a large amount of existing NPCs in the world were just copy&paste jobs of one single NPC to give the illusion of work being done
Click to expand...
ROFL, who hasn't done that to make it look they were busy all day? Pad out excel sheets and extra tabs because you know no human can read it and see that you just faked it. It's funny that in gaming though some disgruntled backer has the autism to prove that step of wrongdoing & no further work was done to flesh them out.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Bean Cheese
This isn't surprising because the game was pretty dead on conception as soon as real world money came into the picture.

It was an awful idea to create a sequel to "Barkley : Shut up and Jam - Gaiden" when you could no longer use

Charles Barkely (or any NBA player) or the last name "Barkley"
Space Jam or anything associated with Space Jam
Any licensed music (including "Sweet Georgia Brown")
Any references to real life characters (including celebrities, aka Wilford Brimley)
Any "reusable" assets (as in all of the spirtes ripped from the actual Barkley game, Skate from SoR, etc).
Any reference to any of these items, except in the most vague capacity, from the first game.

I'm not sure why people thought this would be a recipe for success, considering these were all core items for the first game. The decision to move from an RPG format to a shooter was equally as baffling, especially the part with "millions of guns".

Legally, all they were left able to do was have Cyberdwarf and "Hoopz" (with no last name) do something related to Azetc gold, which isn't much to make an entire game around. Even if this was tackled by a competent team (and it wasn't), I'd be majorly surprised if they would have been able to pull anything good off because there is so little they would be able to do. They would have been better off just making a brand new game instead of trying to jam Barkely : Gaiden into it.
 
  • Agree
  • Like
  • Thunk-Provoking
Reactions: Wärring Ornac, TheMonkeyMan, Lackadaisy and 4 others
This game had a truly comical amount of feature bloat.

from chef:
What Frankie left out was that the gun's system was based on the periodic table. Each material for gun's corresponded to an element on the table, and mixing two gun's together would create a new gun based on some weird science stuff. I don't think I had a hand in this system, because if I had, it would have been even more bizarre and untenable. But like Frankie said, all this stuff sounds cool, but the battle system was never refined to the point that it would have actually improved it.
Click to expand...

from frankie:
Bhroom pushed for an equally absurd idea for deciding the gun material result, that is also currently in the game and working fine as far as I know: that all of the gun materials are actually elements that fit onto a periodic table of elements, with atomic numbers etc (each material having an actual real world element counterpart, and a few materials ARE a real world element like Gold, Iron etc, and those have their proper place on that table) and the fusions result actually use logic inspired of chemistry, based on atom orbitals and whatever, and that this was supposed to be one of the biggest loving secrets of the game, never to be revealed to players whatsoever, something people were supposed to realize only much later after having made charts of how materials seem to relate to one another, with the few real-world element materials being huge hints about it.

We came up with most of these materials together, but he figured out how to arrange them, and this all worked, as absurd as it was. There was another chart where you could select two materials and it showed you the result. The idea was to have the resulting materials of a fusion seem random to the player at first, but every material combination always having the same result meant people could "map" how the combinations work, and eventually maybe actually realize the full horror of what we made, this table above here.

Some of these gun materials I later worked on to make their shots have more personality, and that was a lot of fun. The Klispin (I think we renamed it Marble?) gun fired spooky ghosts that hunted down enemies and moved through them (basically the wraithverge weapon from Hexen), the pinata gun fired candy, the yggdrasil gun left behind a trail of nature, grass and flowers growing, the crystal gun shots exploded in random shrapnel, while the diamond gun exploded in shrapnel flying in specific angular directions, the fungus gun fired floating spores that spawned mushrooms when it hit the ground, the imaginary guns were all Hoopz just holding nothing in his hands, firing invisible hitscan bullets and making gun sounds with his mouth, and was supposed to be more powerful the more innocent Hoopz was (basically the less time passed I think the stronger it would get? Im not sure we ever implemented that idea though!).
Click to expand...

784020
 
  • Like
Reactions: Smaug's Smokey Hole
Francis York Morgan said:
I had completely forgotten this was even a thing. Maybe if it was five years ago, I'd be disappointed by this news but I don't feel one way or another about this revelation now.
Click to expand...
If this was 2013, many of us that were excited would be disappointed but thanks to how Kickstarter itself has a lot of broken promises and the like, it wouldn't be surprising for one to give a big "meh" to this. Part of me is disappointed the development but not surprised considering the nature of Kickstarter projects as well as the fact that was mentioned earlier: devs missing the release date, lack of updates after a certain date, etc.
 
Last edited:
  • Agree
Reactions: Uncanny Valley
purpleboy said:
I could see this working if it was in the hands of a team with more experience like Obsidian
Click to expand...
A team of developers that worked on games before that wasn't just some rpg known for nonsensical content and story wouldn't only be able to handle it, they'd likely get it released on the date that was originally intended, likely without the money drying up. Still, for a game that made use of basketball, it's pretty damn hilarious just seeing how they wanted to make a gun system based off the periodic table of elements, something that would likely eat up a good portion of their manpower and funding.
 
  • Optimistic
Reactions: Smaug's Smokey Hole
c-no said:
A team of developers that worked on games before that wasn't just some rpg known for nonsensical content and story wouldn't only be able to handle it, they'd likely get it released on the date that was originally intended, likely without the money drying up. Still, for a game that made use of basketball, it's pretty damn hilarious just seeing how they wanted to make a gun system based off the periodic table of elements, something that would likely eat up a good portion of their manpower and funding.
Click to expand...
Wasn’t there similar shit in Blakemore’s Grimoire and Underworld Ascendant, the 90s WRPG-inspired games, how they both had all this incoherent donkey shit that was never present in games like Ultima Underworld or Daggerfall
 
  • Like
Reactions: BlazikenLover and Smaug's Smokey Hole
purpleboy said:
Wasn’t there similar shit in Blakemore’s Grimoire and Underworld Ascendant, the 90s WRPG-inspired games, how they both had all this incoherent donkey shit that was never present in games like Ultima Underworld or Daggerfall
Click to expand...
I can't say with Underworld Ascendant but with Blakemore's Grimoire, Blakemore himself may as well of been a special sort of person. There was an RPG codex post but I can't seem to find it since it says you have to be logged in to view it. This post from another website does link it though.
forums.mmorpg.com

While we wait for Wizardry the MMO

Here is a pledge video by one of the old devs who worked on Wizardy 7 and also an early version of 8.
forums.mmorpg.com forums.mmorpg.com

There are other threads of him on the Codex though, one of which linked a FAQ of Cleve.
forum.quartertothree.com

Cleve FAQ

I can’t take credit for this, I just found it, since this forum is now ‘Cleve’s Crazy Corner’ I thought this would be the best place to put it: ========================================== A FAQ ON CLEVE BLAKEMORE's THREADS ON USENET Distribution : comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.adventure...
forum.quartertothree.com forum.quartertothree.com

Blakemore more or less ended up talking about sex toys and an individual he worked with. I also remember Blakemore making an indiegogo for Grimoire
www.indiegogo.com

Grimoire : Heralds of the Winged Exemplar

The Ultimate Retro Classic Style Computer Fantasy Roleplaying Game!! | Check out 'Grimoire : Heralds of the Winged Exemplar' on Indiegogo.
www.indiegogo.com www.indiegogo.com

The only thing to separate Blakemore from ToG in this is that aside from sounding like a sperg, Cleve was working on his game for a long ass time. Then again, we don't know how development cycle was for his game and for all we know, the time spent working on the game may as well been spent shitposting online and on RPG Codex.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: Uncanny Valley
c-no said:
I can't say with Underworld Ascendant but with Blakemore's Grimoire, Blakemore himself may as well of been a special sort of person. There was an RPG codex post but I can't seem to find it since it says you have to be logged in to view it. This post from another website does link it though.
forums.mmorpg.com

While we wait for Wizardry the MMO

Here is a pledge video by one of the old devs who worked on Wizardy 7 and also an early version of 8.
forums.mmorpg.com forums.mmorpg.com

There are other threads of him on the Codex though, one of which linked a FAQ of Cleve.
forum.quartertothree.com

Cleve FAQ

I can’t take credit for this, I just found it, since this forum is now ‘Cleve’s Crazy Corner’ I thought this would be the best place to put it: ========================================== A FAQ ON CLEVE BLAKEMORE's THREADS ON USENET Distribution : comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.adventure...
forum.quartertothree.com forum.quartertothree.com

Blakemore more or less ended up talking about sex toys and an individual he worked with. I also remember Blakemore making an indiegogo for Grimoire
www.indiegogo.com

Grimoire : Heralds of the Winged Exemplar

The Ultimate Retro Classic Style Computer Fantasy Roleplaying Game!! | Check out 'Grimoire : Heralds of the Winged Exemplar' on Indiegogo.
www.indiegogo.com www.indiegogo.com

The only thing to separate Blakemore from ToG in this is that aside from sounding like a sperg, Cleve was working on his game for a long ass time. Then again, we don't know how development cycle was for his game and for all we know, the time spent working on the game may as well been spent shitposting online and on RPG Codex.
Click to expand...

Cleveland is a special kind of crazy. At one point he was building a fallout shelter.

Here's an archive of his old blog where he basically latches onto whatever conspiracy theory is popular at the moment:

VAULT-CO

IT DOESN'T MATTER WHO IS RIGHT. IT IS ALL ABOUT WHO IS LEFT.
web.archive.org web.archive.org
 
  • Agree
  • Like
Reactions: Uncanny Valley, Violence Jack and c-no
GentlemanFaggot said:
Cleveland is a special kind of crazy. At one point he was building a fallout shelter.

Here's an archive of his old blog where he basically latches onto whatever conspiracy theory is popular at the moment:

VAULT-CO

IT DOESN'T MATTER WHO IS RIGHT. IT IS ALL ABOUT WHO IS LEFT.
web.archive.org web.archive.org
Click to expand...

He also figured he was indestructible after being hit by a car where the car got damaged but not him.
 
I am legit fucking horrified by this. I knew it was in level 99 dev hell but I didn't expect it to get this bad.
Seeing it the grave just makes me want to scream.

This is MOTHER 3 level of cancellation nightmare. This was gonna be like a modern DS RPG and seeing so many cool ideas, assets and mechanics go to waste is tragic.
 
  • Feels
  • Like
Reactions: Uncanny Valley, thepianogeniusfromshine, Paul Manafort and 1 other person
I've sending empty emails with the title "Where is the game" to Tales of Games about a couple times a year whenever I remember this existed, was very surprised to get a response back randomly and discover all this. Supposedly they're releasing a demo this weekend, I'm curious what actually was finished but I'm fully expecting it to be shit. I can understand the motives of overambitious devs who don't want to admit they took $120,000 and failed but this is long overdue and the current team sounds almost delusional. Not to downplay the contributions of other people but I've always considered this chefboyardee's gig, his brainchild and his sense of humor is what drove it, and it should've ended when he called it quits. I don't really know what the hell the point is when none of the original team are present anymore. It's like if someone tried to continue South Park without Matt Stone and Trey Parker and did their own crappy imitations of their voices.
 
Last edited:
  • Agree
  • Informative
Reactions: Uncanny Valley, Smaug's Smokey Hole, Violence Jack and 2 others
(Shitty early backer only version of) demo released!

If you wanna play a better version sit tight until they announce it on twitter there's several (known by the dev team who are currently fixing it) game breaking bugs in this one:


Also all the devs that left are back to help release this demo and ONLY this demo, once it's out and the 6 or so year promise is fulfilled the project is officially buried with only bhroom and bort left
 
  • Informative
  • Feels
Reactions: Uncanny Valley, Agent of Z.O.G., Smaug's Smokey Hole and 1 other person
Coolio55 said:
(Shitty early backer only version of) demo released!

If you wanna play a better version sit tight until they announce it on twitter there's several (known by the dev team who are currently fixing it) game breaking bugs in this one:


Also all the devs that left are back to help release this demo and ONLY this demo, once it's out and the 6 or so year promise is fulfilled the project is officially buried with only bhroom and bort left
Click to expand...
All these years and only a bugged-to-shit demo. Anyone tried it yet?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back