Which game seems most stuck in "development hell" right now?

[Lauren Morton]

Hey PC gamers, welcome back to your regularly scheduled Chat Log podcast! I hope you enjoyed our three weeks of GDC roundtable interviews from Wes and Evan. Now that summer is nearly here, we're starting to think about which games we're expecting to see updates on during showcase season and which ones have been absent for quite a while. That phrase "development hell" starts to pop up around this time of year referring to things that seem like they just can't make it to a release date after years of turmoil behind the scenes.

Which game seems most stuck in "development hell" right now?​

There are a few really prominent examples of games that seem mired in their own development right now: Bloodlines 2, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, and of course Star Citizen. Have you long been hopeful for anything that seems fated to never make it to a release date? And what counts as "development hell" anyway, when so much of this is speculation? A public switch in development teams, a report about an internal relaunch of the project, or lots of senior positions leaving the studio? We wish them all the best, of course, but sometimes waiting on a game that's really going through it has me biting my nails.

 

[Frindis]

Camelot Unchained looks to be one of those. Got a lot of angry backers after they started developing a new game while not finished with Camelot Unchained and the new one might or might not be the first one they are developing? I dunno what is going on with the whole shebang, They have a release set sometime in 2025, so we'll see then what kind of monster they created.

 

[Zloth]

Oh yeah, Deep Down! I guess they never even got to a point where they decided on the true title for the game.

View: https://youtu.be/ivwgE_t8a5s?si=F6zURP7aNM1LLL_t

 

[DXCHASE]

Gothic 1 Remake. They recently announced a collectors edition because its somewhere on the horizon (no official release date yet but something will be announced this summer apparently), but its been in development for over 6 years now and there still isnt much to go on outside of an outdated demo that was scrapped, a few screenshots of weapons, swords, monsters, areas etc., but nothing super concrete and no actual gameplay.

 

[Zloth]

• Development Hell: game is in development but is unreleased.
• Development Hades: game has been in early access for far longer than seems sane. (If it's abandoned, that's something different.)
• Development Abyss: game has been released but is intensely buggy. I'm not talking "oh, some of the sidequests can break in uncommon circumstances" or "my GPU is only 30% utilized" - I'm talking less than 80% of players can finish a game because of game-killing bugs.
• Development Limbo: wait, we got bought out? Is the game still supposed to release? Why does my paycheck just have "Cash" instead of my name!?
• Development Happy Hunting Grounds: development seems to be done to get more money for development, which is done by hunting whales.

(Thank you AD&D Player's Handbook)

 

[CodeCrafter]

Definitely Star Citizen. It's been in development for over a decade with no clear release date in sight. The ambitious scope keeps expanding, but the delays are endless. It’s fascinating to watch but frustrating for backers.