Redfall's Sadie Boyd: "I Didn't Anticipate My Peers Openly Mocking the Difficult Launch"

"Ah yes let's all grow up and grab our pitchforks and light our torches"

A disingenuous framing, but whatever. A poor product will likely meet a poor reception; expecting anything else is unrealistic and more than a little entitled - all professionals face the same reality.

Let me be clear, I don't endorse personal attack, nor have I seen any individual singled out; Just the game, studio and publisher being criticized.

I also won't admonish consumers or stakeholders for taking major exception - they have been deprived of value. As for the peers, many fellow developers are not happy with the state of the industry, including the increasing frequency of dismal releases and the circumstances that lead to them. Silence has in part enabled this. Don't take their frustrations personally when they are likely not directed at you individually,

3

Anonymous user

·11 months ago·

A lot of the criticism levelled at Redfall could (and arguably should) be levelled at Dark Tide too, yet somehow the general reviewer impression of Dark Tide is pretty good. Yet it's buggy as all hell, it squanders system resources which makes it needlessly bad to play on mid level rigs unless you turn down all the graphics settings and even gives higher end rigs an unnecessarily hard time. Character choice is limited, customisation of characters (other than cosmetically) is limited just to weapons, a single type of buff item and a hand full of feats, not even armour other than for cosmetic purposes and this is flipping 40k armour and weapons are like 80% of war gear in 40k, even your armoured opponents get an armour buff! Enemies don't notice you even when you are like 30-40m away and in clear line of sight until you start shooting at them. The objectives and levels are generic, reparative and don't tie together even losely in any sort of plot with any kind of feel of progress short of unlocking weapons with bigger numbers.

Yet despite all this, I love it, it's fun to play because at its heart all you really want in a co-op horde looter/shooter is to kill waves of enemies in a team of other people cooperatively where you each bring different value to the team. And despite people trying to label it as an "immersive sim" that is what Redfall is at its heart, it might have few immersive sim elements but it's Left4Dead with vampires, magic and and a bit of an open world element.

So why is it fair to trash Redfall when we give Dark Tide a free pass on all those things? It seems to me like either people had wildly unreasonable expectations of Vampire Left4Dead because it was Arcane or there is a concerted games industry media effort to bring this specific game down for some reason. Either that or Games Workshop paid off most critics to give positive reviews, and if that's the case why should anyone bother listening to the opinions of critics' that just say what the highest bidder pays them to.

1

Anonymous user

·11 months ago·

Maybe you should not work for a company that clearly de-values is employees, sets them up for intentional failure and throws them under the bus.   That is where her problem is, the rest is mere consequence.

2

Anonymous user

·11 months ago·

Sick of her, Arcane, and anyone involved in an unfinished release. They all deserve to be fired.

2

Anonymous user

·11 months ago·

"When someone asks you to address the negative issues" is a completely seperate issue. If people behave like they're back in the playground mocking somebody's career then she has every right to bring the issue forward.

"What was she expecting?... Grow up". Ah yes let's all grow up and grab our pitchforks and light our torches, yes this is the peak of maturity, I mean what do you really expect from adults?

Obviously whoever had the responsibility to manage the development team is at fault here and a lesson has hopefully been learnt.

2

Anonymous user

·11 months ago·

I really haven't had a problem with this game. Its FAR less buggy than an in house Bethesda game. I have had 2 bugs and a repeatable way to make it crash. 1. I sometimes can't pick up a lootable item. 2. Sometimes crouch doesn't work and I have to restart the game to fix it. If I exit a safe house while switching tabs in the menu it crashes. None a big deal.

I have found it to be a good looking game, the controls are fairly intuitive, the story is interesting, and the combat is as challenging as you want with difficulty settings. Sure, there are enemies that don't always notice if you shoot someone close by them, but it's balanced by NOT having every enemy on in the area instantly know where you are once one of them does.

The "professional" reviews all say the same things as each other, and frame minor nitpicks in the worst light possible. This plays far better than other games that have been lauded at launch. I can't help but think this is a concerted effort by review sites to sabotage a decent game.

0

Anonymous user

·11 months ago·

What was she expecting? Being met with positivity and praise after absolutely failing to meet stakeholder expectations? Grow up.

2

Anonymous user

·11 months ago·

The sad thing is the Redfall Developers didn't realized how bad the game is. So, maybe it take a public shaming for Redfall Developers to get their house in order.
Shame is on Redfall Developers not their peers.

3

Anonymous user

·11 months ago·

I'm confused to whether the comment made by Sadie is an excuse for the poor performance and state of the video game or if it wasn't presented as stated to us. When someone asks you to address the negative issues and you make it about yourself, is a huge red flag for me. In an odd way, it makes me agree with the negative comments. Take ownership of the mistake and look to grow.

3

Anonymous user

·11 months ago·

Well when you have huge company's like Microsoft and Bethesda behind you throwing millions of dollars at you it's kinda hard to feel bad when YOU fail to release a game that is functional and not full of glitches. You made a poor choice releasing it in this condition. Now you have to deal with the backlash of releasing a bad product. Wake up and smell the coffee, this is the real world with real money being spent here. You can't expect people not to be a little pissed doff that the product they bought is crap. And you guys knew it was. Bethesda knew it was and put an embargo on reviews until an hour before release.

0

Anonymous user

·11 months ago·