Godus Wars on Steam Database

Pretty cringe, or pretty inspirational, depending on the outcome. Outcome wasn't good, so pretty cringe. Hindsight is a mofo.

When the speech was made in front of other developers PM had already long shat the bed of Godus many times over, and this was around when he was "no longer speaking to the press" but kept issuing his "insanity" to other developers at events of trying to sound still relevant by cloning mobile shovelware mechanics and trying to make that sound like a natural extension of the part of his career when he actually tried.

Anyone who is even moderately familiar with game development could think about what would happen to the development pipeline when you put someone that green to continue development where other programmers left off - a complete nightmare and nothing could try to make the title go arse-up faster and more definitely than that, really. Ask KSH about Miner Wars 2081 and how the eager programmer they had stalled the game's development and ate up resources they could have used on someone competent.

You WANT the experimental hobbyist, the fellow who wants to try new things and tinker around with challenges to overcome, as they are the one who...is looking to solve programming challenges that arise. Rather exactly the person you need for programming insane design into a game, right?

The one who is "excited" but hasn't ever programmed on a game before? He's lying or to green to have been of use, as if they really were that excited to see their own work/code in a game then they would have long ago done so in some form, whether it's from trying to clone something to try their own hand at the same and maybe see a new approach, to modding existing work to see how well they can make changes, to making a small game of their own content; this is something even most designers have done at some point using distributed dev tools, so for a programmer to not tinker around...is rather unbelievable at best.

The one who didn't do anything but pay lip-service to what PM wanted to hear is a liability more than an asset.

We now have a term for those folks - "Mr Fantastic" from Fallout: NV. Eager as hell, tells the hiring folks what they want to hear, but might just be another "Omnipotent Entity @ Starbound" for being so actually clueless about development and programming that they spend four hours streaming their fail of trying to make a new menu entry by copy+pasting an existing one and then trying to figure out why it doesn't work. Chucklefish eventually had to get another real programmer to keep Kyren from losing her sanity like most of the original dev team did long ago with Tiyuri.

Nothing kills off "drive" like a crap title and poor management with dishonesty surrounding the title so much the actual developers can't show their faces for a number of reasons - mainly because they aren't allowed to, but also because the title's production has been abusive to employees, backers, and customers all. This was one of the main ways of how Herve Caen killed off Interplay.

In short, hearing PM say anything of the sort should have sent anyone experienced on his dev teams running out of the building screaming as if it were on fire because in practise those hiring methods mean about the same thing for any title's development.

Now y'all know how I felt having to go through it a few times to type that load of laughs.

That was a form of torture and abuse in itself...



Indeed, you can take the "young ambitious yet clueless dreamer" in as a design role of varying importance depending upon their ability to flesh out a design that can be used by the rest of the production, mainly because their design can transfer over a bit from medium to medium (with a bit of LARPing even thrown in for working on RPG dialog - on that note, Bethesda must do their proofing completely pissed), but they are really not suitable to be one of those who are central to bringing the title to life on a more technical basis. You DO want to have a programmer who is experimental but yet restrained enough to hold back from too much feature creep suggestions back to design - "I can even make it do THIS..." has resulted in a lot of work sometimes.

Mods/indie/homebrew titles are EXCELLENT CV material that count the best outside of previous employment - it's your work. One of the current programmers/designers can pick through it to see what you've done by yourself or with others. People ask me advice on how to "get into the industry" and I point to that, and it's really easier now than it has ever been for more people of varying skill levels to do so. Even hacks could put in DotA weapons into the paid-for mods for Skyrim in that fiasco. My First Unity Project is probably not something you should try to make money from, but it should be your personal sandbox of exploring what you can do by your own guidance and inspiration.

Again to Interplay - I find it common to have one's old D&D binders requested to have a look-through. I remember, about two decades ago, JE Sawyer applying with his armful of material and a barely-restrained ancient Rome nerdgasm. I think it has worked out well since.



I question the enthusiasm of the programmer who says that they are excited but haven't yet tried - in 2015.

My next question in the interview to them would have been "You're not taking this seriously, are you?"



At that time of the video's creation, a few of the experienced had already left Godus' development (another video has him detailing this) with an earlier excuse because of "burnout" (ie. experience realised they were working on shit) and so PM was probably telling folks what he himself wanted to hear/believe in that he could go back to the Bullfrog days where everyone was young and clueless and actually learned what not to do to ready them for their future careers.

PM has inspired in both directions, in what can be done and what shouldn't be done; however, for the former, he was informed that he was getting a bit ah, how shall we say, "tall poppy that is often standing on another poppy's shoulders"? The whole "frontman" and "rockstar" image was at detriment to those who weren't given credit (and sometimes made to take a fall - ask Carr about that) yet who offered a LOT to Bullfrog and Molyneux's growing kingdom - THAT is some hindsight that should be remembered when watching the video in its entirety.

That problem is often why PM has lately included more of the old Bullfrog folks into his speeches and credits. It is also part of why he has basically disappeared from most press, because that was traditionally a BIG sore spot between him and his own teams. Godus' own development showed this clearly, even in the videos; Microphone Stand Simulator 2012 and "Catch22, It's Now YOUR Responsibility - I'm going to go work on another game instead!" were both lovely examples.

Bullfrog has a lot of mixed emotions for folks, but since it was their first dev house...they tend to remember those fondly, even if shot with BBs.



I've also occasionally listed a few who have been in the EA program and haven't been contributing to the...ill reputation the program has been offering towards those involved with it. There are still quite a few who try that I would say that their efforts make them stand out appropriately when customers find them.

So with that in mind...

Who wants to chart the odds on "Got Us Whores" being Early Access as well, since...well, wouldn't it just be charming for the press to get hint of a DLC/runaway title for a game that has already stalled out in Early Access?

Early Access to DLC/new title like that? They cannot be that thick to set new lows for the EA program, certainly not...

Valve urgently needs to address this. There is no ethical way for an Early Access title to be offering DLCs (pay-for or otherwise) or sequels. These games are supposed to be in development, and consumers are willing to stump up money for a buggy, unfinished game because they believe they are funding the final product. Developing external content implies the base game is completed, or at the very least implies the developers have stopped working on the base game, which means it has either been completed or abandoned. 

So, in the case of Godus: completed or abandoned? We all know the answer to this, but 22Cans will never need to confirm either way because Valve will allow them to retain "Early Access" status indefinitely.

Tim Rance left 22cans. Enough said. Even his shares where cashed in. Companies house has that info. His linked in is also interesting to read. He works at the bbc now. Only mention of working with peter is 22cans as well . Bullfrog is just listed as him doing network code for populous then moving on to another company. I'm guessing the pair had a bit of a falling out for him to have sold his shares,stop being a director of 22cans and change jobs.

Unfortunately bb code dosn't deal well with brackets in people's names. I don't know if you need to do a /[ or a //[ before the bracket in the name to quote it out.

Ah, that's interesting. I was going nuts trying to get it to work and couldn't, for the life of me, figure out why. Now we know.

*Sits down with a bucket of popcorn.* Lets see how they want to spin this.

"Now that Godus Wars & Godus are both available as one package, we will be closing the Godus Store page and removing the higher price from sale. The discussion boards will be left untouched."

So, uh, does closing the Godus Store page wipe out all the mostly negative reviews?