Reporting by Andrey Apanasik for DTF.ru on October 17th 2022. Couldn't find a thread about this article.
Google Translated: https://archive.ph/54nMD
If Russian Era members like Rosenkrantz or TheBrightestSun can chime in on the translation or the article, would be much appreciated.
There's a lot of mentions about crunch, failed promises like about bonuses, bad management, no milestones set, reboots, multiple prototypes, feature creep, many interns and lots of turnover rates, the art team leaving in 2020, the QA team nearly left, relocations from Moscow to Yerevan (Armenia) and Cyprus if you were one of the chosen few, and much more. Builds would be shown to investors every 3 months or trailers made, but it seems lots of reworking would be demanded rather than building on the foundations. Gameplay trailers appeared to have basically been made as vertical slices rather than from the actual builds of the game, hence why it can often look so polished when you see a new trailer. At one point it was gonna be open world with various paths and dungeons. Lies about "it's hard times now" despite having a lot of money for a AAA project and investing from Tencent, GEM Capital, and Gaijin Entertainment.
The characters:
It's at least clear from the footage released so far that the artists did some great work, but they might not have been fairly compensated.
Wouldn't be surprised if Atomic Heart releases very buggy and not well on consoles.
Google Translated: https://archive.ph/54nMD
If Russian Era members like Rosenkrantz or TheBrightestSun can chime in on the translation or the article, would be much appreciated.
There's a lot of mentions about crunch, failed promises like about bonuses, bad management, no milestones set, reboots, multiple prototypes, feature creep, many interns and lots of turnover rates, the art team leaving in 2020, the QA team nearly left, relocations from Moscow to Yerevan (Armenia) and Cyprus if you were one of the chosen few, and much more. Builds would be shown to investors every 3 months or trailers made, but it seems lots of reworking would be demanded rather than building on the foundations. Gameplay trailers appeared to have basically been made as vertical slices rather than from the actual builds of the game, hence why it can often look so polished when you see a new trailer. At one point it was gonna be open world with various paths and dungeons. Lies about "it's hard times now" despite having a lot of money for a AAA project and investing from Tencent, GEM Capital, and Gaijin Entertainment.
The characters:
- Robert Bagratuni (Maxim Zatsepin) is a CEO/investor, whom everyone refers to as a good advertiser and marketer. He believes that "the game sells only a picture and a story, so the gameplay can be neglected." Incredibly creative, always knows how to sell an idea.
- Oleg Gorodishenin is a producer on the project. Reviews about him are very contradictory, but most often employees say that he, like Robert, likes to promote and push his ideas bypassing all procedures and their own established rules.
- Artem Galeev is a key person in the development of the game. Responsible for the design and setting. Other employees speak generally positively about him, saying that he "constantly plows".
- Andrey Dyakov is a CTO who is technically savvy and really knows the ins and outs of UE, but "often pulled the blanket over himself, exposing the others as wrong."
"There's a script. And this is a film script and the game itself is made as a movie, not as a game - hence part of the problems."
..."We have a lot of work to do, and I believe we can and should give up primitive joys like weekends and vacations for the sake of the project. We will reimburse with bonuses to the NG that will amaze your imagination." - Robert Bagratuni
Bonuses, of course, no one saw.
...Bonuses, of course, no one saw.
Crunches and transfers
There were a lot of landmarks and dates, but they were all too optimistic, besides, they scored to the last on the console versions. Testing on them takes a lot of time, and a couple of times, following the plans of the management, there were about 2-3 months left for console testing. Over the past year, crunches have become more frequent, mainly due to investors. During the New Year holidays, most of the team worked. Sometimes you didn't have a choice to crunch or not: someone on the team had to come out.
In addition, every 3 months, as if by the hour, some new "reasons" were generated: showing the build to investors or trailers. Upon reaching a certain date, the management allegedly evaluated the work of everyone and rhythmically conducted a wave of layoffs and new hires. Sometimes people were fired one day to give their iron to new employees.
The management regularly talks about bonuses after the release and about the work "from which you are a fan".
There were a lot of landmarks and dates, but they were all too optimistic, besides, they scored to the last on the console versions. Testing on them takes a lot of time, and a couple of times, following the plans of the management, there were about 2-3 months left for console testing. Over the past year, crunches have become more frequent, mainly due to investors. During the New Year holidays, most of the team worked. Sometimes you didn't have a choice to crunch or not: someone on the team had to come out.
In addition, every 3 months, as if by the hour, some new "reasons" were generated: showing the build to investors or trailers. Upon reaching a certain date, the management allegedly evaluated the work of everyone and rhythmically conducted a wave of layoffs and new hires. Sometimes people were fired one day to give their iron to new employees.
The management regularly talks about bonuses after the release and about the work "from which you are a fan".
Dmitry Bagaev 10:04 PM
@channel, hello!
Last Friday, we told you about the plans, they are excellent, feasible and we are quickly moving towards their implementation.
Of course, there are obstacles in our way: payment restrictions. You felt it on the April salary and we are doing everything possible to prevent this from happening again.
To do this, we take several steps:
of course we develop places where we can
accept you outside the Russian Federation and Ukraine
(Armenia, UAE);
we optimize financial flows. On the financial side, we have come to the decision to temporarily change pay for weekend work from x1.5 to x1.
This measure applies only to those who receive money on the territory of the Russian Federation and is associated with the complexity of money transfers from other countries and the unstable exchange rate. This decision is difficult for us, but it corresponds to the current situation 1 It is extremely unprofitable to do business in Russia and this is reflected in our financial planning. We try to mitigate the consequences of what is happening as much as possible, but they affect everyone.
If the situation changes, we will be happy to return to the previous scheme, in the meantime we are happy to help everyone who wants to move, contact me directly, I will tell you in detail about how the relocation process works, it's really simple)
It's at least clear from the footage released so far that the artists did some great work, but they might not have been fairly compensated.
Wouldn't be surprised if Atomic Heart releases very buggy and not well on consoles.
