Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory - isometric RPG based on the tabletop game

[V_K]

Who are we supposed to be scared of today? CNN I guess.

China.

 

[Theldaran]

Today we've gotta defend from Greta's madmen, even if if you wait to think for a second, they're harmless.

 

[LESS T_T]

I wonder how many people worked on this? LinkedIn lists 66 employees at Black Shamrock, but they are also doing outsourcing work (for example, around 30 of them worked on Jedi Fallen Order), probably mandated from the parent company. Many of their job postings say you're going to do outsourcing work.

It looks strange when their parent company has over 1000 employees they have to be distracted by outsourcing work and are not fully focused on original projects. (And they claim they are "a studio focused on “core gamer” strategy and rpg titles" on the website.)

Well I'm now more concerned about RuneQuest CRPG.

Well it looks like it's not that different from what you can see from outside. In-house projects are second-class citizens: https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Black-Shamrock-EI_IE2392372.11,25.htm

"Good place to start in the game industry but maybe not to stay in the long run"
3/5

Former Employee - Lead Developer in Dublin, Co. Dublin (Ireland)

Recommends - Neutral Outlook

I worked at Black Shamrock full-time (More than a year)

- AAA projects: the company always manages to signs mandates for AAA projects (due to the fact that we are a Virtuos studio and also the marketing style of management). AAA projects are interesting but very demanding, as clients expect a lot. Pressure and tight deadlines but in general very challenging projects. It can also happen that some projects are bad and end up being a pain for the team and management. But that is just the nature of outsourcing.

- Not enough seniors. This is very critical. Half of the seniors leave after a few months of joining the company and people who have accumulated few years of experience tend to leave also. It has been the case since the beginning of the company and this issue has not been addressed by management. To my understanding, this is the business model as I see it as an employee:

o offer a relatively cheap outsourcing solution to AAA clients
o Attract and rely on juniors as much as possible and expect seniors to train them before they leave
o Use outsource if not enough staff
I do not know how much influence Virtuos has on Black Shamrock and I might be wrong. However, after seeing so many people come and go, I objectively note that the turnover is very high.

- Outsourcing. This is only a disadvantage in my eyes and is purely my opinion. I joined the company where we were doing on own games. We had 3 indoor projects. 2 of them got cancelled and one just released (Paranoia). If you want to work on in-house projects, then it might not be the best choice for you. There is currently only one in-house project (RuneQuest). The company also recently opened a new department “Service for games” where they do software engineering solutions for games. The company is doing mainly outsourcing mandates so just be aware of that. If you like outsourcing, then perfect.

- Staff movement. People are moved in different projects often and they can’t really do anything about it. You can always argue and sometimes you might make your case, but most of time, like in many companies, the project needs come first.

- Lack of software licenses. It is a struggle to get management to buy for licenses for tools/ software’s needed to work professionally. We eventually tend to get things but sometimes too late.

Bonus:

- The office is located in Dublin 8 in front of the Guiness Storehouse on Thomas Street. We call this neighborhood “Zombie land” because of junkies wandering in the streets like in a proper scene from the Walking Dead. Things that you might see when you come to work :

o People lying in the grass after getting their dose
o People taking drugs (crack, cocaine , heroin and any other drugs I do not know)
o People shouting
o People vomiting on themselves (not fun to see that going for lunch)
o People asking your for money
o People taking a dump
o People putting fire to trash
o Person climbing a tree and spitting on woman (ok that guy is just crazy and it can happen anywhere…but still …seriously)

Company is surrounded by a Drug centre and a homeless center. At the start, I did not care at all, but after a while, I was tired of seeing something almost every day. It is not dangerous at all (although apparently you can get attacked by teenagers called “knackers”). But in 2 years and a half I never felt in danger or threatened.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

In short, this looks like a game with a thin varnish of Paranoia the pen and paper game, but completely missing the point and the historical framework of that game.

Any totalitarianism is terrible. The game does fine job of portraying that .

 

[Sammy]

So uh, not to necro a super dead discussion needlessly (Imma be honest, I'm a Codex scrub so if this is talked about elsewhere my bad, but I couldn't find any other discussion on it) but Happiness is Mandatory is just like, gone from the Epic storefront. It was delayed into December, got some pretty bleh reviews on Metacritic, and I assumed wasn't a stellar seller, but I'm quite surprised that it was only around for a month before it vanished, especially since it was an Epic exclusive (at least for a year or whatever their contract was for). What I find even weirder is that it seems like nobody noticed, or has talked about it anywhere.

What exactly happened? I've never heard of a video game existing for a month and then just up and vanishing like this unless it was some kind of turbo scam that got uncovered or got caught up in some other scandal of some sort. Steam's "Coming Soon" page still exists, and the dev websites still have mention of it, though they haven't updated their pages to say that the game's out, nobody's reported on the game in any way recently, social media accounts for the game are totally silent. Anybody here know anything?

 

[Infinitron]

Haha, what the hell? Yes, it seems to have disappeared sometime within the last couple of days.

 

[LESS T_T]

A Glassdoor review posted this month:

"There's really not much that can be said in light of this corporate entitity"

I worked at Black Shamrock full-time (More than a year)

Pros

- The employees are absolutely fantastic folks. (and it hurts to see them go through such poor working conditions)

- There can be a lot to learn (by yourself) and gain from some of the projects that are present, if you are lucky enough to be selected for them.

- For new interns and employees, it can be a good place to start in the industry

- The company can handle their outsourcing projects better, but as a video-game development studio there is no chance that it is capable of producing an exciting (AA or AAA as they claim) title with their current problems and infrastructure.

Cons

- The salary is quite frankly the biggest issue. Not only is it nearly impossible to survive in Dublin with such low salaries, there is almost no way to negotiate your salaries or raises, despite working your best efforts in the poor pipelines in place.

- There is an incompetent management structure and a sincere lack of resources (basic tools, softwares, hardware and even key roles that are CRITICAL to the development of some projects)

- You will feel like you're essentially working in anything except video-game development. If being owned by a giant outsourcing conglomerate isn't enough, development cycles feel like office labour, the artists are treated like machines (endless tasks, impossible deadlines & little to no trust) The morale is low & it is depressing to witness the same mistakes being repeated over and again.

- While communication had slowly improved, it remained one of the most frustrating challenges for the company. Misinformation, false deadlines, conflicting & unresolved decision-making and poor attitudes towards goals still negatively impact the productions.

All in all, this is not a place to remain in for the long-term. It will chip away at your soul and before you realise it, you will notice that progress is truly a dead-end.

Advice to Management

None as the systems in place cannot be reasoned with.

This reminds me again... the founder of this studio is the French man who led the studio of canceled Witcher 1 console port that almost tanked CDPR.

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

 

[Roguey]

https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/paranoia-happiness-is-mandatory/critic-reviews

With so many negative reviews, the optimistic take is that they're going to spend the next year trying to make it not-terrible.

Pessimistic take is that they're so ashamed, it's gone forever.

 

[Optimist]

This is delish.

"You are in error, citizen. There was no release of Paranoia game in Year of Computer 2019. In fact, knowledge of the Year of Computer 2019 itself is treasonous. Please, report to the nearest self-termination booth".

 

[ERYFKRAD]

What exactly happened? I've never heard of a video game existing for a month and then just up and vanishing like this unless it was some kind of turbo scam that got uncovered or got caught up in some other scandal of some sort

Just like that game which ripped off the assets from Chaos Chronicles. But then, I don't see that asset Thievery is what happened here.

 

[Saduj]

This is a total guess but maybe Epic is contending that the developer didn’t finish the game and hold up its end of the deal and wants its money back. Doesn’t seem likely anyone is “fixing” the game so that’s the only other reason I can think of to pull it.

 

[thesecret1]

The image of Epic asking the devs for refund is pretty funny. Especially since it's probably what happened – I'm pretty sure that after getting money for being an Epic exclusive, they're contractually obliged to actually, you know, BE on Epic. So they probably couldn't take the game down even if they wanted to, meaning this would be a move coming from Epic itself.

Really, from Epic's side, it must seem like they just got scammed. Marketing for the game basically dropped dead shortly after the deal got signed, the game is broken and shit despite multiple delays, and there seems to be no effort to fix it after the fact. It must seem like they polished a turd with marketing to get money from Epic, then quickly cobbled together something technically playable and jumped the ship with the money.

 

[Maxwell's Demon]

Woah... did I actually call this one?

There's no such thing as guaranteed success. Epic store exclusivity is sacrificing one's potential for exponential growth for the sake of a single payout. It's dumb unless the executives are planning to pocket the money and jump ship in the near future.

 

[Zombra]

It WAS Aliens!

 

[Baron Dupek]

aaand it's gone
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/paranoia/home
https://www.vg247.com/2020/02/07/epic-games-store-exclusive-disappears-and-no-one-is-saying-why/
404 and some garbage cartoon character on the right wearing dinosaur suit

 

[Roguey]

Paranoia doesn’t have a high Metacritic score, but it’s hardly a disaster.

47 isn't a disaster? That's in the red. A shovelware score. A humiliation for everyone involved, especially Epic.

 

[Infinitron]

lol games media. I sent PC Gamer a tip about this after Sammy's post last month asking them to look into it. Their guy replied to me but they never published anything.

 

[Ranarama]

This is a total guess but maybe Epic is contending that the developer didn’t finish the game and hold up its end of the deal and wants its money back. Doesn’t seem likely anyone is “fixing” the game so that’s the only other reason I can think of to pull it.

Even Epic are trying to get Steam refunds.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Taking Epic's deal is accepting that you made a shit product you know won't sell well and just wasted 5 years of your life that you will never get back.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Walmart has a Switch version listed, BestBuy has a PS4 and Xbone port listed for pre-order
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Paranoia...-Games-Nintendo-Switch-814290015053/561731922
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/paranoia-happiness-is-mandatory-xbox-one/6350386.p?skuId=6350386

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Walmart has a Switch version listed, BestBuy has a PS4 and Xbone port listed for pre-order
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Paranoia...-Games-Nintendo-Switch-814290015053/561731922
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/paranoia-happiness-is-mandatory-xbox-one/6350386.p?skuId=6350386

I spy with my little eye...

 

[LESS T_T]

I guess they want to do something like Enhanced Edition re-launch coincide with the console release.

 

[V_K]

I wonder if what happened here is something similar to The Sinking City's situation.