The horror of releasing a video game beta
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- Should the team release the Skycraft expansion beta during the fever pitch hype of the fans?
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I think Abbie has finally crossed over to the Dark Side.
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em
Abbie! You were the chosen one! You were supposed to stop the greedy corpo suits, not join them!
I think she is more concerned with not absolutely insulting fans. That is why she is pumped about the hype and is pushing to capitalize on it.
No no, companies makes sure everyone is on the Dark Side all the time. Her priorities were just different.
In my experience, community managers are just as dark and crazy as every other person in the company with an external responsibility.
Even the game devs are "dark siders" some times - they'll happily go "Oh, this expansion needs feature X and feature Y! It'll be AWESOME!" and then you have to go "Well... that'll cut off 15% of our player base from playing it, according to these hardware metrics. Could you maybe, perhaps instead, like... not?"
CEOs wants to please the money gods (aka the wider audience), CMs want to please the vocal minority of their community, Devs want to feed their inner feature gremlin, Writers want to feed the Lore Troll, Security teams want's to say "no" to everything, and so on.
Her reasoning was very sound though. A true pick your poison moment. They fail either way.
"I will give you all the resources you need."
"Great, so, I need this resource called 'year' and I need two of those. If you give me those, we can do it!"
i will use this at my company lol
"Delvin, how did you let this happen?"
I mean 'time' is a ressource.
Admittably with good planning, good staffing, support and funding you can do a LOT.
12-18 Hour shifts, with paid overtime, additional (competent) coders, skilled designers, clear vision and communication and a contractually agreed upon Bonus payment based on success.
Pretty sure that'd do wonders.
@@MajorCoolD you'd need over a month just for hiring and onboarding
More like five of those
I cant belive that Rowan was a voice of reason for this one
He knows he fcked up with that trailer
lol exactly
It's like him and Abbie switch sides lol
I'm surprised he even knew what was going on
He must have woken on the wrong side of the pillow
Abbie you were supposed to destroy the management. Not join them!!
P.S Rowan being the reasonable one is really throwing me off.
"i brought profit, revenue, growth, and new investors to my new company"
I think Rowan is a Todd Howard stand-in, so even if he is the pop star dev that makes too many false advertisements, he is still a dev somewhere.
you either die a hero or live long enough to become the villian
@@erfanashkan5925 I was thinking John Romero, forced to suffer through the challenges of his own lofty promises and comes out the other side humiliated but as shameless as ever.
You were the chosen one, Abby!
Remind me of star citizens first release. A hangar, and your ship inside it. You could look at your ship, and sit in the seat, and... that was it. That was all there was.
and people were HYYYYPED 😆
nah no idea, jk, I only heard bad things about that game.
@@Broockle Thats because your opinions are formed in a bubble.
@@Broockle understandable considering they have made an insane amount of money selling "concept ships" for 50k a piece and are overpromising on stuff thats been years behind. Like they literally gathered over 700million in funding over the years. Some of the biggest tripple a games of the last few years didnt even have that much funding
@@Michael-kk3qx Or maybe some people just look at the absolute shitshow that is that game and realize that the game is incredibly overhyped, it has incredibly underdelivered and somehow managed to be one of the, if not the most expensive game made to this day.
@@maxineshideout852 Hell Cyberpunk 2077 was announced the same time as Star citizen. CDPR caved in to fan pressure and released the game a year early and before the next gen consoles not after. meaning it would have came out 2022 with likely 2 expansions along with it around 2023-24.
What's Star citizen's progress since then. still not out yet and regularly crashes.
I knew it, after the last episode, Abbie had that look in her eyes. And now Roman is reflecting and acknowledging his mistakes. It’s like he remembers when he was a game designer.
Ok but who the fuck is Roman
"Dammit"
Rowan was... reasonable?
The end of days is near.
He just knows that it is not ready. He does not want the floodgates of hate to open upon him and him specifically. He was happy to spend the budget on a trailer and charge for the presales.
Since Rowan apparently put together the trailer... Arguably you could say he was the least reasonable person here. As it put them in a position to have to release unready slop just to capitalize on the hype they didn't need to create.
@@pacmonster066 Releasing nothing until it's ready would have been better than releasing basically nothing as the beta. "Capitalizing" on the trailer was a terrible idea, the entire point of the trailer is to buy time and get funding.
@@iPuls3 No. The point of a trailer is not to buy time and get funding. The funding for a game comes well before the trailer is ever made. And the development time a game takes has nothing to do with the trailer. You must think all games work off a kickstater or indigogo style business model.
The point of a trailer is purely for marketing and advertising purposes. So people will be interested in the game and pre-order it. Pre-orders aren't "funding" for a game, it's a metric of user interest in the end product. If the game is nowhere near ready yet, there's no point in producing the trailer. Bethesda is an example of this concept in both it's best and worst cases. When Fallout 4 was first revealed to the public, the game came out literally a few days later. Skyrim before it had 1 year between initial reveal trailer and release. Compare that to Elder Scrolls 6. Which had its "reveal" trailer 7 years ago and that game won't exist for at least another 2 years.
In either the best case or the worst case use of trailer, neither "bought time or funding" for Bethesda.
It make sense in this case, since she's viewing it from a PR POV with no dev experience. She probably thinks they'll be able to make something that's close enough to playable that it would create more hype.
Abbie at the start - 'Community first!', Abbie now - 'Let's capitalise on this, release it now!' Story of Abbie-nakin's turn to the dark side is real.
She was trolling Rowan!
Not really though. She’s the community manager, she’s supposed to build hype for the game
She got a bonus after the trailer was released.
The community wants the game now.
@@nick_8564 Exactly, coz she's suppose to be on the side of the Community so she obviously would want to push something for them.
This is the first time we see Abbie and Alan vs Rowan and Adam😂. It sure was unexpected but welcome!
This brought smile to my face as I have been in Adams shoes. as a retired developer of computer systems here and we had a saying back in the day that 1 woman can have a baby in 9 months but 9 women cannot have a baby in 1 month. It was to remind those setting deadline that sometimes it takes as long as it takes before you can release your system. Thanks for the video
Never try to build a house on an unfinished foundation
Yes exactly, project managers hated that baby statement a lot 🙃
Hey, but the sales team is never wrong!
Love this 😂 What really melts their brains is that 9 women can have 9 babies in 9 months...
@@RacingAnt 😂
I'm not a game developer, but as a SW engineer with 20+ years of experience in the field, I can tell you this is _absolutely spot on_ . Does anybody remember that brilliant video about making the "expert" to draw 5 mutually perpendicular lines? Yup, very fitting too. The management is _always_ sure "we" (meaning the developers) can do it. "Technical details" are left to us to deal with... And believe me, very often their "reasons" for pushing us far over the limit are far less important than this; I once spent sleepless nights and worked huge overtime, including through my holiday, to make the deadline, just to find out that nobody touched the product for another month after I finished with it. But the deadline was met---and that was the important thing. BTW, that company is no more. Guess why...
the worst part, is that by figuratively whipping you like that to overwork and deliver, they think that they are great managers. Without their "willpower" nothing would have happened. Next time they will ask even more of you
That expert series of videos is great.
I did this, too. And it happened, too.
Never I will never do it again.
Patreon-funded game dev here... Yes. Your productivity will be judged by the amount of zeroes your income has. Four digits' expectations amount for one hour of gameplay every month. Five... that's an expansion-sized update every month too. And they don't care if you're just one guy. You're swimming in money so hire three 100K/year coders and make it happen!
I send that lines skit to every fresh-faced engineer I know, so they can get a taste as to what engineering is actually like.
Okay I really like this one. This episode really cemented Rowan's character and backstory of "the charismatic face of the company who genuinely knew a thing or two about game development and then sold out."
Worker guys who get blinded by the management lights.
Seen it before.
2:51 “your objections are noted. And duly ignored”
I like how Rowan’s character is actually intimately aware of the game making process, him being unreasonable looking back is either him being swept up in his own ideas or in someone else’s. It was also nice to have Abby switch to a heel, I like them keeping the characters dynamic
Rowan was the one that announced the expansion, and had the trailer made.
This was probably the first time in a long time that his personal reputation was on the line.
Did anyone else hear the bus revving up when he said " I will protect you" ?
watching the end was deja vu because I already saw it in my mind mere seconds earlier
Those of us in software development have heard this speech so many times lmao - that bus was getting fitted with iron spikes on the grill like a Mdlad Max movie.
Or contemporaneous memos, if you want to be less confrontational.
3:41 nod if you understand
Underrated comment
*nod*
Nod in agreement if you understand
Skip
Nod!
The fact people expect a game when the developers spend all the money on the trailer is really ungrateful, really says a lot about today’s society.
Exactly!! If they spent all the money on the game, then they wouldn't have had a marketing budget and no one would even have played it. Wouldn't that be a waist?
Completely agree. Personally I buy games primarily to support the development of new, exiting trailers!
Who cares 😂
Yes. Everyone from game industry knows, that 30% is going to marketing, 40% to top managers Ferraris (or yachts, depends on corporate size), 20% to development, 9% to distribution a 1% to testing (QA)
@@raisgamesnz325 balance in all things.
1:42 I was honestly expecting Rowan to say "We've got the little icon that tells you the expansion is installed"
oh god the number of times I've had managers give me that exact speech... just this year alone..... *cries*
Every manager I have ever had has pretty much said something a long those lines. 9/10 its ended in a disaster that harms the business / company. Do they ever learn...no.
Did they call you a teddy bear too?
@meglobob9217 Because they are managers. Companies need to stop hiring managers and just promote technical employees with aptitude for leadership.
@meglobob9217 The correct way to deal with bosses like that is to agree with whatever they say, then immediately brain-dump it as if they'd never spoken. Some vague "I did that thing you said" later on is more than enough since they won't remember either and basically just want a pat on the head for being a "good leader." Note that no matter what you do they'll steal the credit for anything positive while assigning you 100% of the blame for anything bad, so given how actually doing what they say is *at best* a complete waste of time...
I really appreciate you guys for adding captions in every videos you guys have, I can still watch it even in loud places. Much thanks to yall!
'Loud places'... You are watching at work, aren't you?! Me too.
How loud can the toilet possibly be? 😂
My hearing sucks and need the cc
@@VivaLaDirtLeagueYou don’t wanna know…
@@VivaLaDirtLeague ...you dont wanna know
Rowan‘s shirt is always a showstopper! I can hardly concentrate on the rest of the video!
Yes. Rowan having his shirt on is pretty unusual.
Hell yeah, that's a fucking great shirt
Possibly available in the VLDL shop😂
Fashion is on point
My Man
Of all management-speak, "I hear you, you are heard" is both the most patronizing and the most guaranteed sign that nothing you just said has been listened to.
Or it has been, but ignored.
This is Abbie's villan origin story. Watch your back Clint, watch your back.
"Many of you may fall into depression and burn-out from excessive stress and overwork... but that's a sacrifice I'm willing yo make."
So the starting town for the new expansion is Thebesda
That explains a lot.
Yup 😅
"**Bedroom freaky action**" when Alan grabs Adam's face absolutely sent me! 😂😂😂
Seriously...your subtitles person is a mad genius and I am here for it!
I had to rewind a few seconds to make sure I read that right
Lloyd from our editing team smashing it as per usual 😂
@@VivaLaDirtLeague Tell Lloyd he's the MVP! 👏🏾
Y'all are experts/masterminds in skits at this point
lol. I could have written this during the course of taking a shit.
@@dylanmcshane9976 i said (at this point) and also why u hating for no reason bro I don't see ur channel with millions of subscribers anywhere?? They have one that's why they're hustling that's why they have subs likes comments you don't so don't even hate for no reason and + u prolly couldn't.
@ Buddy. its their characters/actors that made them famous. I love em. But the writting CANT GET MORE BASIC. You just like gobbling celebrities.
@@dylanmcshane9976 it used to be basic but they have improved alot but anyways whatever mate if i like "gobbling celebrites" u like "unnecessary hating on em" 💀 whatever bye
@ lol Being aware that they write basic scripts is hating on them? pft grow up idolizer.
It is so sweet how much Alan cares (about his money) ❤
so[clench]much[clench]money
As someone that worked in game dev for 6 years, I have to say this series is a lot more accurate than vldl thinks it is.
2:14 "But if we release something that's broken, they'll hate us." Foreshadowing, much?! :D
r u twelve?
You missed the next line, just as much of a problem.
I love that you see Baradun's costume in the background, since Delvin has to be a magician to pull this off.
0:14 the classic empty coffee cup.
Is filming with even a half empty cup really that troublesome?
I mean Rowan spent half of the ENTIRE BUDGET on the trailer while Adam probably spent the other half playing god by creating a literal sun and an NPC so detailed down to the last atom it became self aware.
Really appreciate this episode showing that Rowan's character was one of the original devs and wasn't always a corpo guy, he still retains a semblance of understanding the process
Abbie you were the chosen one, meant to bring balance to the skycraft dev team not destroy it.
3:11 "I will protect my teddy bear" LMAO! 😂
I could never say that without laughing! Especially while actively squeezing my friend's face! 💀
There was a LOT of laughing while filming that
@VivaLaDirtLeague Hahaha it's great to hear you're all having a great time with your work! It really shows in your content!!! 😊
They skipped the part where, due to the failure, half of the creative theme is fired, while the manager receives a bonus "for cutting the expenses"
NOoooo, Abbie has fallen.
Not really. Shes doing what a good CM does. :P And releasing an early Playtest was a good idea to keep the hypetrain going (just look how Baldurs Gate 3 turned out that was like 3 years in Early access). Issue is ofc.. that the rest of the Company is led by Clint.. so it was destined to be a catastrophe :P
@@Y0G0FU She is absolutely not doing what a good CM does though. She is pushing to release something when the development has hardly begun. A good CM would never make such promises at that stage of development, as it's destructive to the game and community in the long run.
@@MaMastoastshe didn't promise the community. She told the company to capitalize on it. Different things. The trade offs are considered by management which is Alan.
-"The schmagenrog-mountain of code"... "makes Schmagenrog-mountain of gold"
The only thing missing was a 9/10 IGN score
0:35 rowan holding back laughter 😭
"I will give you all the resources you need."
Great! The main resource I need is time so based on our current capacity, this project will take around two years (24 months). You want it done in two months, so let’s just upscale the dev team and multiply it by 12 - easy! Scaling up the dev team and getting everyone up to speed will take about six months. Planning, managing and coordinating a larger team will probably add another six months then integrating all the work from different devs will probably add... say another six months? Then there is testing for a beta release, Another six months. So, factoring everything in, we’re probably looking at a release date in about... say 2 years? Lets do this - go team!
Ironically I am just beta testing something that's in EXACTLY that spot. It's alpha quality, and management wants to do a preview release. It'll be EPIC, I already bought popcorn.
The best of times!
Let me guess: It's AC:Shadows :D
Shadows - Shadowland, this can't be a coincidence^^
You are still beta testing CIV VII? I thought that released already...
Is it cyberpunk :)
Gta 6
“I will protect you! The consequences will fall upon my shoulders!”
The response to that should have been:
“Could you send that to me in an email, please?
_Always_ CYA.
My thoughts the same. I would even begin the email chain myself.
"As our last talk.
I'm understanding that regardless of the concerns I raised related to time constrains, you wish to move forward and green lit the beta release for 1 month from the current date of this email, correct?
Please confirm you understand and accept the risks of this decision so we can start the development.
Best regards,"
Always CYA :)
"You went full verbal agreement. Never go full verbal agreement"
@@Vinicius-tw6owNo, the beta was now. The full expansion was a month. Had the beta just lasted a year, it wouldn't have been an issue.
As soon as I heard that, I knew Clint would absolutely not protect Delvin
@@FJ1987 Unless you can also abuse the verbal agreement, maybe slipping in a written disclaimer down the line when submitting the terrible product "not ready as originally forecast".
Somehow the character that rowan is playing was the one advocating against the bad decisions thats a first
This is the best series since epic NPC man, you absolutely hit the nail in the head with every sketch, I wish all the decision makers of big game companies have seen those, hilarious, great stuff!
Interesting detail that one of the article said that the game was from 1999. Boom lore drop !
the last year really good games ever been released
Which article said that, please?
@@alexmmin While I agree that the 90s was an excellent time for games, saying there hasn't been a single good game released this century is a little ridiculous
As an engineer, I feel so many feelings watching this. It’s a combination of laughing and crying
Ubisoft doesn’t have this issue. That IS the game.
It just works!
This reminds me of when Dovetail Games released the Euston to Birmingham route for Train Simulator. The route was an obvious beta that was missing assets and ran horribly. Thankfully it got patched to fix the issues, but it's an understatement that it hurt their reputation.
3:29 "Pros: Nothing" Not even Rowan's opening cinematic? Harsh.
“I will protect you! The consequences will fall upon my shoulders!”
DELVIN, HOW DID YOU LET THIS HAPPEN?
Clint - How long do you need?
Delvin - Like a year?
Jake - *_More like probably two years, I'd say._*
Oh boy, I did NOT see that one coming.
PS: As a developer, I feel your pain, Delvin; I really do...
And this is why game companies should not release information about an expansion until it's like 80-90% ready. I shouldn't have to have an announcement then wait 2 years for its release
Abbie's Killin It.....
"If you can't rule it - kill it" or smth like that XD
EA Style
@@NightLancerX "adding microtransactions..."
Project Manager: "How long will it take?"
Me, a dev: "Probably around 3 months at this rate, but only if nothing unexpected comes up in the meantime, so let's say 6 months?"
PM: "What if I double your team size?"
Me: "A year at least."
Alan bringing out his inner Kirk to try to get Adam to bring out his inner Scotty. "It's gonna take two weeks, captain." "You have two hours".
Fucking love this series!. Been following you guys since epic npc man and so glad you gotten this far!
The bald man needs to watch this series!
There there Delvin, We, the Viewers, know that you are the Best! 👍
Nice to see that you have a lot of fun while filming.
"Oh, Delvin, dear Delvin... I WANT THAT MONEY!"
Allen : "I will protect you"
Me : "No you won't"
Allen : "I will protect my teddy bear"
Me : "Not happening"
Allen : "The reaponsibility will be on my shoulders alone"
Me : "Never in a million years"
This one hit me right in the Developer PTSD having been in Delvin's position a time or two (albeit just corp development, not game dev)
Rowan was really on point with being on Adams side this time around, he even suggested two years when Adam said just one.
Aaahhh!! All of a sudden i understand why the Barradun character is constantly screwing with, rudely putting down and hassling the Greg character who looks exactly like Clint!
Have they been setting up this very scenario for 7 years?
Because that is impossible....however it is also utterly impossible that this is just a happy coincidence!
I assume that this is why They cast Alan as Clint the CEO
I never get tired of them doing the “I hear you, you are heard.” 🤣
To achieve great things, all you need is a plan and not quite enough time ^^
STOP MAKING THESE SO ACCURATE... IT'S GIVING ME FLASHBACKS
0:16 No, Abby was dealing with her daily starbucks. The coffee cup doesn't lie.
OMG! This is investigative journalism of the highest order!
Good Rowan ?! I've been waiting for this kind of Rowan for ages.
I'm going to remember that line "I'm going to protect my teddy bear"
I can't believe Delvin still has a job after that debacle
He reallly needs to be reigned in. 😠😞
He is the only person that knows the code. Games fked without him...unsackable. If ever they do fire him, all the rest will end up unemployed not long after.
Probably also have significant amount of stock.
The documentary hasn’t got to the time when tech companies had problems yet. What? It’s not a documentary. Could have fooled me rofl.
@ That's an aweful lot of insight you're asking of the CEO there
you guys are so close to 7 million dont give up 👍
say goodbye to the man from down under (the bus)
cant you hear , cant you hear the thunder
you'd better run , you'd better take cover
2:28 I love how her expressions just went from this ^^ to this >:(
Wow this failure is all clearly Delvin's fault, everyone blame Delvin.
Can't wait to see Baradun's lost cousin! Hopefully it will appear in one of the next NPC Logic videos!
@VLDL I just realized Rowan spent AT LEAST 7 million making the game trailer for the new game. According to the sales from the white whale sales. They had sold 12 with a final ding and then TPayne bought a 14th at the end of the video. Surely with the other 7 million from the Whale skins you wouldn't let the community down right? Right!?
Oh hi my name is Bungie/Activision/Blizzard. Perhaps you’ve heard of me?😂
It makes sense actually. Abbie makes what she thinks are the best choice for the game and community, and rowan are the og developer so he knew what's possible and what's not.
“The community are losing their minds!”
“Oh God, about what?” (Oh God, what’d I do?)
Even in a different reality, Alan cares about Adam.
I really need adam on the dark side for once, seems like I have never seen him as an antagonist.
There's one time where He wear a gold shirt
Baradun is pretty much a dick as they call them... So plenty of antagonist material in Epic NPC universe.
@@toyohimeyeswatatsuki6917 yeah but that has only happened once and that too was long time ago.
"I hear you… you are heard" … then continues to demand the impossible. A management classic.
Was expecting Abby to put forward the idea of adding paid early access to capitalize on the hype.
Delvin getting thrown under the bus at the end is too real.
I cannot count the number of times I have heard people responsible for the unrealistic deadlines say "I don't remember that conversation" when you remind them you warned them the timetable wasn't going to be possible.
Yip Abbie has crossed over. She just needs to have a revenge arch where she does a hostle take over of the company using a Skycraft Coin pump and dump, that she marketed to the exec team.
Honestly Clint would be proud of her for during it
Delvin, you fool! You should've gotten a written agreement! They always put it on the devs! LOL
Ah... most recent game to be affected: Civilization 7. It was pretty convenient a skit came out not soon after the news dropped! 😂
All of you seem to be having so much fun! I understand that work is work but when you love your work!…💪🏼❤️
Guys, you could make a full blown TV series out of this. You've got one month, make it happen.
How can Alan say those things with a straight face?
Love this series so far. Truly love it
Hold up. Abbie being unreasonable and Rowan being the voice of reason?
What has happened?
Did we drift into a dark timeline for a moment?
we'r in a middle of a great shift
This is why in our studio the asset pipeline never stops. Then when an update is due we scoop up all the ready kit and shape it into something nice and drop it. Works pretty well.
This isn't a skit, this is a documentary on how software development works.
That "ArcticStorm" sign is the least conspicuous thing I've seen in a long time. 😂
I think Abby is trying to take down the company now. Lol!
I was totally expecting Rowan to turn around his opinion at the end. Pleasently surprised he didn't.
I know a guy who's a developer and from what he's told me of his work, this isn't a million miles away from what actually happens
Yup. Not even 1,000 miles from what actually happens. it's not dead on- but it is a good satiric take of what happens.
The "funny" part is that this doesn't only apply in game dev. It even happens in warehouses. It is absolutely crazy. I feel with Delvin.
hey guys c'mon people were too harsh on Journey to the Shadow Realm! I mean they even released the Redux version three years later and they only charged a 10% markup on the pre-sales price!