Flagship on Hellgate

The Max Schaefer Interview on Eurogamer talks with the Flagship cofounder in a conversation that mostly centers around Mythos, their upcoming MMORPG. Towards the end of the article a question about lessons learned from Hellgate: London prompts a confession that they bit off more than they could chew with the action/RPG:
Oh yeah! [laughs]. If we made a mistake with Hellgate, it was trying to do too many things for too many people. We wanted a cutting edge graphics engine, we wanted multiple business models with subscriptions and free play, and single-player, we wanted to combine third-person play with first-person play, we wanted to do random 3D levels, and when you're starting with a brand new game studio with very limited budget and no existing technologies, that was probably biting off too much. We ended up rushing it to market and not keeping it in the oven long enough, just out of necessity.

We learned from that, and going forward as a studio, it's a new emphasis of ours to do things that are more efficient and better-planned, and smaller teams on smaller projects so we can get more ideas out there. With Mythos we're definitely taking our time, we're well within our budget and our means to make it. It's a little bit of a turning point for us - don't try to do everything for everybody. Just be more realistic about your design goals. Bring it back to nine tenths instead of ten tenths and things will go much sooner.
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Re: wow
Jul 7, 2008, 19:24
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Re: wow Jul 7, 2008, 19:24
Jul 7, 2008, 19:24
 
I just love how people make colossal fuck ups and learn some mundane lesson they should have learned simply by picking up any book written about design in general.

Aye. It's not like this sort of thing hasn't been seen before in the industry, both with new ventures and older, more established companies.

If you needed an indication of how well a half baked product which is overambitious in scope and rushed out the door to soon would do, a quick look at Troika's VTM:Bloodlines would have been a great start. Of course Troika had talent so their storyline etc was engrossing even while the engine was a buggy piece of crap that has been better supported by the public. Sans subscription.

Learning from your mistakes is great and all, but saving time by learning from others before you make your own seems like a better idea...

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