Game developers talk about the “worst” games they’ve worked on

Last week, Daedalic Entertainment, the developers of the stealth adventure JRR Tolkien video game Lord of the Rings: Gollum, posted an apology for the game not “meeting expectations” from both players and developers. although Gollum being one of the worst rated games of 2023 on Metacritic is a tough L to hold, it sparked a pretty healthy Twitter thread where a number of game developers shared testimonials about the lessons they learned while having fun working to their respective “worst” games.

The ongoing convo between game developers was sparked by a tweet from God of War: Ragnarok senior environmental artist Danni Carlone. In a quote retweet from a Chronicle of video games article about Gollum, Carlone shared a screenshot of Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric‘s Metacritic review score of 32 in solidarity with the developers of Daedalic Entertainment.

Read more: Lord of the Rings: Gollum Studio apologizes for ‘underwhelming experience’

“Games are hard to make. Regardless of the score, each project has positives/lessons learned. Showing my ‘lowest score’ game because I’m proud of the time I’ve had working with some of my favorite people in this industry,” Carlone wrote in the tweet. “Some things are beyond your control. Be kind to eachother.”

BonusXP environmental artist Ashley Rochelle soon retweeted Carlone along with a screenshot of Aliens: Colonial Marinesmediocre 43 Metacritic score – a poorly rated project she had worked on – and encouraged other game developers to share what they enjoyed working on their own “lowest rated game.”

Read more: Gotham knights Six months later: better, but still average

The resulting thread, with confessions from developers who have worked on games ranging from Gotham knights to ambiguities as one Friends trivia game for the PlayStation 2, is full of sound lessons that developers from many different companies and disciplines have learned while working on games that critics and players didn’t quite get.

Speak with Kotakusaid Rochelle Kotaku it was really cool to hear from so many people sharing the good aspects of it Colonial Marines– especially the multiplayer mode – “despite being pretty universally panned.” She said Carlone’s message to developers to “be nice to each other” resonated with her because “being part of a panned game as a developer is pretty crushing.”

“We, especially as co-developers, need to show kindness. I felt a little solidarity when I shared my experience with a “hated” game. There’s a lot of us who’ve been there,” Rochelle said. “I wanted to show that it’s okay to work on something that doesn’t end well. There are positive things in it; be it a new skill you learned or even the people you worked with. Other projects are coming. We learn from mistakes and failures and continue to make better and better games.”

Read more: Aliens: Colonial Marines: The Kotaku Judgement

Nick McConnell– who was a member of it Final Fantasy XIV‘s English localization team back before Square Enix fully retooled it into a proper game – said that despite being “acutely aware of the issues” he and his colleagues on the QA team often cited when launching the troubled MMORPG, did their best to make the game better by “boosting up the English dialogue” and “[imbuing] it with some extra personality.

“For me it helped to compartmentalize – I wasn’t the director of the game, so I couldn’t claim ownership over the state of the game,” he said. “I was proud of the work we did in loco QA. Some funny dialogue, clear text, etc. Also the camaraderie of being together through the highs and lows of a poorly received launch – we had so many inside jokes and many of us still keep in touch today. We wanted to contribute to something cool that people would love, and it’s nice to know that launch day wasn’t the end of the whole thing.”

According to McConnell, he and the rest of his QA team have been removed FFXIV‘s credits when Square Enix “set the right ship” with the release of its revamp, A reborn empire. Unfortunately, this happens quite often for people who work in QA. Despite leaving the localization team with the release of A reborn empireMcConnell says the work he and his team put into the game’s initial release in 2010 helped “prepare” for the 2013 relaunch.

You can find many more stories from the development trenches in the ongoing Twitter conversation. Here’s a rundown of some of our current, favorite reactions.

Despite Twitter being an echo chamber for people to gossip about games they don’t like, it’s nice to see the people behind those games come together to share cool stories and turn what could otherwise be another unproductive gamer into a productive and healthy online discussion.