Turn-Based Tactics The Lamplighters League - turn-based tactics in pulp 1930s setting from Harebrained Schemes

[HoboForEternity]

Okay that guy is a retard. Ebba was the worst thing to happen to Paradox, making them go from being in the black to in the red because she started spending money on projects like mad (many of which had to get cancelled). Paradox had, and still has thanks to this mess, serious cash flow problems. I understand Wester's perspective of "We spent $30 million on this already and you want us to spend even more?????" If he was the ghoul he think he is, he would have cancelled the project immediately when he became CEO. "Wahhhh this guy sabotaged us by... funding two more years of development."

Which reminded me how they released that crappy werewold game last year or something that flopped hard then forgotten to oblivion

 

[cpmartins]

Supposed Discord chatlog from a former HBS employee. Stated that the Paradox C-suite is to blame for this mess:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachme...1f67c54b8e0768f0c56997cf212bc002f9cc70f1dd7a&

"Trying to diversify the company..." "And it's gone!"
That's what you get when you try do do shit you can't do. Had they done BattleTech 2 they would be raking money left and right but nooooo. Had to try and DiVeRsIfY.
Retard indeed. And a cultist as well.

 

[Alienman]

Damn, looking to work for Bungie. The most anti-consumer developer out there. Not sure he will like that place.

 

[Zanzoken]

Lmao @ spending $30M on this Pixar-looking shit and then expecting gamers to pay $50 for it to salvage your fuck-up. This will be 75% off by next summer and end up selling about 50k copies.

Studio got what it deserved and hopefully the PDX executive who funded it got shitcanned along with them.

 

[Alienman]

For Taka-Haradin puolipeikko

Spoiler

Bit long, but you can find tons of info out there why Bungie is anti-consumer.

 

[Roguey]

"Trying to diversify the company..." "And it's gone!"

Keep in mind he was talking about diversifying the genres of games Paradox was funding. Wester put a stop to that and said the company was going to focus on what they know best, strategies and sims with DLC they can milk, with apparent exceptions for HBS and Bloodlines 2.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

For Taka-Haradin puolipeikko

Spoiler

Bit long, but you can find tons of info out there why Bungie is anti-consumer.

I know about current state of Bungie, but who is looking to work for them?

 

[Alienman]

I know about current state of Bungie, but who is looking to work for them?

The HBS guy.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachme...1f67c54b8e0768f0c56997cf212bc002f9cc70f1dd7a&

 

[J1M]

Supposed Discord chatlog from a former HBS employee. Stated that the Paradox C-suite is to blame for this mess:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachme...1f67c54b8e0768f0c56997cf212bc002f9cc70f1dd7a&

He says the game is good like it is a novel experience because he's never played another game in the genre.

 

[Grauken]

Devs obviously have a very different take on the quality of a game they developed than the players. It's also not unusual that their gameplay experience isn't as broad as that of players

Not a good thing for sure, but sadly not unusual

 

[J1M]

Devs obviously have a very different take on the quality of a game they developed than the players. It's also not unusual that their gameplay experience isn't as broad as that of players

Not a good thing for sure, but sadly not unusual

Not uncommon. Also not an excuse.

 

[Grauken]

Devs obviously have a very different take on the quality of a game they developed than the players. It's also not unusual that their gameplay experience isn't as broad as that of players

Not a good thing for sure, but sadly not unusual

Not uncommon. Also not an excuse.

It's their life, they can do whatever they want with it. Want better games, make them yourself

 

[cpmartins]

Devs obviously have a very different take on the quality of a game they developed than the players. It's also not unusual that their gameplay experience isn't as broad as that of players

Not a good thing for sure, but sadly not unusual

Not uncommon. Also not an excuse.

It's their life, they can do whatever they want with it. Want better games, make them yourself

Guess we have to, cause harebrained schemes can't do them anymore. Because they tried and failed, and then died.
Oh, wait a second... it turns out, there are other developers who aren't actually fucking retarded and give their customers what they want!
So we DON'T need to "make your own" games. All we need is to buy the not fucking trash the harebrained schemes isn't putting out anymore.
Because they're tried to diversify, and failed.

 

[Grauken]

Devs obviously have a very different take on the quality of a game they developed than the players. It's also not unusual that their gameplay experience isn't as broad as that of players

Not a good thing for sure, but sadly not unusual

Not uncommon. Also not an excuse.

It's their life, they can do whatever they want with it. Want better games, make them yourself

Guess we have to, cause harebrained schemes can't do them anymore. Because they tried and failed, and then died.
Oh, wait a second... it turns out, there are other developers who aren't actually fucking retarded and give their customers what they want!

I see you are a fellow appreciator of Baldur's Gate 3

 

[cpmartins]

Devs obviously have a very different take on the quality of a game they developed than the players. It's also not unusual that their gameplay experience isn't as broad as that of players

Not a good thing for sure, but sadly not unusual

Not uncommon. Also not an excuse.

It's their life, they can do whatever they want with it. Want better games, make them yourself

Guess we have to, cause harebrained schemes can't do them anymore. Because they tried and failed, and then died.
Oh, wait a second... it turns out, there are other developers who aren't actually fucking retarded and give their customers what they want!

I see you are a fellow appreciator of Baldur's Gate 3

I did enjoy the first two acts. Unfortunately larian being larian fucked the third one completely.
Glad I didn't pay for it.

 

[Trithne]

So why did this apparently bomb so hard that Paradox cut HBS loose?

I'm going to assume that the game being "woke" wasn't really it - Woke games perform just fine, as unfortunate as that may be.

A brief look at Steam suggests it's a slightly buggy but otherwise entirely mid-range game, but PI basically threw it out to die and blamed HBS?

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Coz the gameplay sux and is lame.

 

[Roguey]

So why did this apparently bomb so hard that Paradox cut HBS loose?

I'm going to assume that the game being "woke" wasn't really it - Woke games perform just fine, as unfortunate as that may be.

A brief look at Steam suggests it's a slightly buggy but otherwise entirely mid-range game, but PI basically threw it out to die and blamed HBS?

An incredibly mediocre game with an off-putting art style released in a crowded season full of Big Sellers. Additionally, the setting itself no longer holds nostalgic appeal for most people. Crystal Skull from 2008 was a bad movie that made loads of money, Dial of Destiny was a bad movie that bombed. The pulp call-back is no longer en vogue.

Also the game ended up costing $30 million. It would have taken a miracle for them to recoup that budget given the genre. Paradox's own internal reviews from earlier this year said they had a big dud on their hands, so they laid off 80% of the studio in advance and just ate the loss. Spending more would just make a bigger loss. They finally stopped the sunk cost fallacy, though much too late.

 

[Tyranicon]

Well, I have to say that this outcome was entirely too predictable.

The unfortunate thing is that the game would've bombed regardless of actual quality. Even if it was really good, at best it would gather a cult following.

And be well-received on codex, of course. There's no greater prize than being liked by people who hate almost everything.

 

[Sarathiour]

I'm going to assume that the game being "woke" wasn't really it - Woke games perform just fine, as unfortunate as that may be.

This is a perfectly illustration of a modern game theorem :
It's not because it's woke that it sucks.
It's because it's bad and uninspired game that it is woke.

Going for "diversity and stronk womyn" is the defacto thing that you do when you don't have a clear artistic vision, it's at this point a reflex, because that way no executive or suit is going to tell you that your idea suck and that you should go back to the drawing board.
Beside, Roguey is absolutely right that pulp call-back is no longer in vogue.

 

[Immortal]

Supposed Discord chatlog from a former HBS employee. Stated that the Paradox C-suite is to blame for this mess:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachme...1f67c54b8e0768f0c56997cf212bc002f9cc70f1dd7a&

"Paradox gave up on it long before it came out"

- Yes. Any sane person would.

"I'm currently going through a job application at bungee"

Oops.. this didn't age well, don't get too comfortable..

 

[ArchAngel]

Devs obviously have a very different take on the quality of a game they developed than the players. It's also not unusual that their gameplay experience isn't as broad as that of players

Not a good thing for sure, but sadly not unusual

Not uncommon. Also not an excuse.

It's their life, they can do whatever they want with it. Want better games, make them yourself

Guess we have to, cause harebrained schemes can't do them anymore. Because they tried and failed, and then died.
Oh, wait a second... it turns out, there are other developers who aren't actually fucking retarded and give their customers what they want!

I see you are a fellow appreciator of Baldur's Gate 3 Pathfinder games

FIFY

 

[ArchAngel]

I finally tried this on Game Pass. It was working well at first and looks nice and it is kind of fun. Then it started crashing after few missions and then in Week 6 it just freezes when I change the view to Map.
Even release Kingmaker and Phoenix Point were not this buggy this early.

 

[Kev Inkline]

Well, I have to say that this outcome was entirely too predictable.

The unfortunate thing is that the game would've bombed regardless of actual quality. Even if it was really good, at best it would gather a cult following.

And be well-received on codex, of course. There's no greater prize than being liked by people who hate almost everything.

I think codex mostly likes games everyone else hates just because hating something everyone else hates is sort of pedestrian.

(Hating something everyone else likes goes without saying, ofc. But that's just lvl 1-3 curmudgeon)

 

[ArchAngel]

There was a big patch yesterday that seemed to fix crashing and hanging issues. I was able to continue playing.

Found details: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/free-dlc-update-isaac-and-the-twist-of-fate.1615434/
They also gave us an additional character and an event system that I've seen already. It is simple but nice.