UT3 Postmortem

[hal]

At the GDC, Epic Games' Mike Capps and Jeff Morris ran through five things that they thought worked with UT3 and five that didn't. 1Up has a bit:

...Morris attributed the game's lackluster user interface to last-minute changes and insufficient time to make needed refinements. He bemoaned staggered launches across multiple platforms and regions...

Wired has a little too:

Not only did UT3 Senior Producer Jeff Morris point to the obvious UI issues -- which Epic's President Mike Capps described simply as "fucked" -- but he also revealed that a lot of the polish the company wanted to put into the title was simply not possible thanks to the constricting deadlines they had created for themselves by opting for a planned simultaneous PC and PS3 release.

We'll be keeping an eye out for the full transcript or video.

 

[Harmatia]

Most of us wanted to forgive Epic for the problems and mistakes, and to go back to loving them as we always had as quickly as possible.

They should have just come out and said "We're sorry. We ****ed up. We'll fix it; we promise!" from the start. We would have all respected them more for it.

 

[Phopojijo]

Most of us wanted to forgive Epic for the problems and mistakes, and to go back to loving them as we always had as quickly as possible.

They should have just come out and said "We're sorry. We ****ed up. We'll fix it; we promise!" from the start. We would have all respected them more for it.

They did o.o

They just never explained why.

And it's kinda feasible why they wouldn't for the first couple of weeks... the marketing was already ****ty enough -- no need to put out bad publicity.

But the game is fun -- and definitely will be better over time.

 

[Ogs]

"simply as ****ed", i love this guy .

 

[Nirvelli]

Then: "We won't let the console versions distract us from our main focus...the PC."

Now: "We let the console versions take over our project, and now everybody got screwed. oops."

 

[Beelzebud (Satanas)]

Then: "We won't let the console versions distract us from our main focus...the PC."

Now: "We let the console versions take over our project, and now everybody got screwed. oops."

Thats how I read it.

 

[dethmanrulz]

next up:

Mark Rein on how awesome UT3 is on the PC.

 

[Aggressor]

There was no mentioning of consoles vs. PC at all. It kind of amazed me, since it implied that consoles are de facto paradigm now at Epic.

Also, there is almost no possibilty that newly announced engine features will be incorporated into existing titles.

And lastly, I hate myself for forgetting to ask about DoF. Mike said they were very satisfied with the art and graphic style of the game. There was no mention of any kind of visuals in the bad points about the game.

 

[Wunderbar_007]

OK....So what happens now!? UT3.5? Expansion Packs? I mean I'm glad they admit the shortcomings but how are they going to fix them!?

 

[_Lynx]

Also, there is almost no possibilty that newly announced engine features will be incorporated into existing titles.

That's because it's not just that simple as "here's the new stuff engine can do, you can get it in the patch". First thing - it may use and require quite different engine build. Second - these features won't do anything just by being added, the game has to built using them. And last but not the least comes the problem of network compatibility - some changes Epic do not apply because this will break the network compatibility between different versions of the clients.

 

[RoadKillGrill]

So.... it was not released "when its done"

 

[Kantham]

but he also revealed that a lot of the polish the company wanted to put into the title was simply not possible thanks to the constricting deadlines they had created for themselves by opting for a planned simultaneous PC and PS3 release.

****ing bad opting.
I just keep thinking this lately:

Make a console game, don't port it to the PC. I'd rather still be waiting right now for UT3 or whatever else name you can give, that just don't play like UT3, more like UT3.5 with a whole different UI build for PC, lots and LOTS of customization - Keeping the ones from anterior UT's while improving them. This is what it's all about.

Don't give your customers a stupid console game ported to PC at the same time they scheduled the PS3 release. AFAIK, Unreal Championship 1 was released a couple of months before UT2003, and the UIs were completely different, so was the gameplay ETC.

 

[Aggressor]

That's because it's not just that simple as "here's the new stuff engine can do, you can get it in the patch". First thing - it may use and require quite different engine build. Second - these features won't do anything just by being added, the game has to built using them. And last but not the least comes the problem of network compatibility - some changes Epic do not apply because this will break the network compatibility between different versions of the clients.

I know this well enough, but as long as there was no firm statement concerning this matter ... you know what happens. Also, the fact that the game was not built around them is not really much of a hurdle. The engine structure is by far the biggest problem.

 

[WarTourist]

I think the Wired blog titles are overly sensational.

GameSpot gives far more objective (and comprehensive) coverage: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6186634.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;1.

 

[Miko]

Someone needs to tell gamespot to edit that title headline to Jeff Morris. Other then that it does explain a great deal of what actually went on durring the postmortem. I hope we get some things tidied up in the end. Nice for epic to admit errors.

 

[Kantham]

That's pretty damn much more detailed in there.

 

[Phopojijo]

I think the Wired blog titles are overly sensational.

GameSpot gives far more objective (and comprehensive) coverage: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6186634.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;1.

And yet they got your name wrong, "senior producer Mike Morris"

Just kidding. Ah got to love typos eh?

(I just realized someone already pointed this out <.<)

 

[Grobut]

That's pretty damn much more detailed in there.

Yes, but oddly enough it is not covering the things from the other articles, so none of them are compleate.

We really need a full transcript of what was said, like hal pointed out, i really dont think we are getting the full story from either of thease outlets.

 

[MonsOlympus]

Good read hey, Id have to agree with all of that. Sounds like Epic knows where the mistakes were made, mind you I thought character customization while it might not be seen as popular was a good addition.

Is it just me or does that interview say there is a ruff PC UI sitting around at Epic doing nothing?

Oh well, Ive seen alot of good mods for this game already and since custom content will take alittle longer with normals and whatnot we should be seeing that stuff in a few months through to the end of the year easy

 

[cubemario]

It's good that epic admits it's mistakes. Though they aren't telling the whole story. UTIII was announced, and then was pushed aside for a while to develop and market GoW. I would say that UT3 had 2 years of development at the MOST, the most being very generous. The game was brushed aside and consoles were put as the top priority, resulting in this game being a rushed mess with a deadline to make.

Since the game was obviously rushed and had little development time that was needed, it resulted in it's epic failure.

Case closed, i'm just glad that epic partially admits it.