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"Playing Hard", a candid documentary about the making of Ubisoft's For Honor, is now streaming on Netflix

A Ream of Paper

A Ream of Paper

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Apr 8, 2018
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Synopsis from the film's official site:
Playing Hard offers unprecedented access to a highly secret world where a few gamers/designers are shaping what has now become the biggest entertainment industry in the world. It follows the creation of the game For Honor over a four-year period. As the production team grows from 40 to 500 people, we witness the human theatre involved in creating and launching a major video game.

From Montreal to Los Angeles, through Cologne, Moscow, Seattle, and Asia, we follow Creative Director Jason VandenBerghe, Producer Stéphane Cardin, and Brand Manager Luc Duchaine as they struggle to bring an idea to life. Beyond the commercial success of the game, their dreams, fears, and relationships are at stake.
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https://www.netflix.com/title/81083880

So I just found out about this and I can't find any talk of it here. Interesting to note that Ubisoft had no say over the final cut of the film. The filmmaker, Jean-Simon Chartier, apparently had to fight with Ubisoft to retain access to the studio halfway through the game's development. I haven't played much of For Honor, but this sounds like it'd be an interesting watch. It also looks like this has been out for awhile? I'm surprised I'm just now hearing about it.

Anyone here watch this? What did you think of it?
 

RandomError

Member
Oct 27, 2017
216
Just finished watching it.

It's not so much a technical or procedural 'making of' as it is a story about the physical, mental and emotional toll of AAA game development. It focuses primarily on Creative Director Jason VandenBerghe, with Producer Stéphane Cardin and Brand Director Luc Duchaine in supporting roles.

It doesn't explore the actual development process, the technology, or the experience of the boots-on-the-ground developers and artists at all, and it leaves some fairly major questions about the central figures frustratingly unanswered.

That said, documentaries about video game development are rare enough (obligatory plug for the efforts NoClip is making to improve this) that I'd still recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in the 'behind-the-scenes' of video game development.
 
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kanuuna

kanuuna

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Oct 26, 2017
726
This was really good actually. I didn't pay much attention to the game's development and I spent time with the end product, but this peek behind the curtain was definitely interesting to watch. VanderBerghe's situation seems similar to that of Desilet's with Assassin's Creed. A bit slimy, at least on the surface.
 
Budi

Budi

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Oct 25, 2017
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Wasn't aware of this, but I'm interested. Vandenberghe seems like a great dude and he has the looks and charisma to match it. Need to check if it's available elsewhere than Netflix though.
 
ejo

ejo

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Oct 27, 2017
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just watched this. after reading about Anthem's development from Jason, I really feel for the foot soldiers in game dev. can't imagine how mentally draining AAA games development must be. i've only worked in QA, but now that i have a family i can't imagine spending that much time at work.
 

Deleted member 43077

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will add it to my list for sure. I enjoy docs about the making of games, things like NoClip are a great watch.
 

Deleted member 4494

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Oct 25, 2017
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Watched this last night. Left me a bit cold, to be honest: Ubisoft doesn't come off looking very good, since there are a few moments that echo the real problems we are seeing with crunch and depression, and the documentary (in my opinion) doesn't have anything useful to say about that and in some ways actually seems to glorify it. The For Honor Creative Director comes off as teetering between insightful and fun to "I'm not seeing the whole story here" when it comes to his personality; I am not getting the sense that this documentary is designed with an intent of letting the viewer know much of anything, other than trying to get me to feel bad for the guy.
 
Nikus

Nikus

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Oct 25, 2017
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Huh, it's weird that I never heard about it 'til now. Thanks for making the thread, I'm interested.
 
Assenzio

Assenzio

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I am watching this.

Huge insight in to the industry, not only For Honor.

The director had complete freedom and shows many negative aspects with no filters
 
Budi

Budi

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Assenzio said:
I am watching this.

Huge insight in to the industry, not only For Honor.

The director had complete freedom and shows many negative aspects with no filters
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Cool to hear, I wish the availability would be bit better. Don't really want to take Netflix sub just for it. I need to get familiar with Vimeo and see if renting is available for my region. Never really used it.
 
Assenzio

Assenzio

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Just finished it

Everybody in this forum should watch it. It's not a For honor documentary, it's an AAA development documentary.

You see people giving resignation, art directors loosing control over their own project, cut being made in the last 2 months because there not enough resources, you see E3 rehearsals and E3 fuck ups, you see marketing clashing with development team etc...

It's honestly a great great great experience
 

Deleted member 8674

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Assenzio said:
Just finished it

Everybody in this forum should watch it. It's not a For honor documentary, it's an AAA development documentary.

You see people giving resignation, art directors loosing control over their own project, cut being made in the last 2 months because there not enough resources, you see E3 rehearsals and E3 fuck ups, you see marketing clashing with development team etc...

It's honestly a great great great experience
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On my Netflix list.
 
Overflow

Overflow

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Oct 29, 2017
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Wow, incredible that we haven't really heard of this being developed before? I'm going to watch this ASAP!

Edit: huh, the trailer has been out for a year. Also how was the film maker able to have pretty much unrestricted access? Is that covered at all?
 
PSOreo

PSOreo

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Oct 27, 2017
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Why do I feel something like came out already? I seem to remember it having scene with the cane guy getting frustrated and isolated because they moved away from his ideas. It then has a dramatic shot of him in the show or something.
 
Assenzio

Assenzio

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Overflow said:
Wow, incredible that we haven't really heard of this being developed before? I'm going to watch this ASAP!

Edit: huh, the trailer has been out for a year. Also how was the film maker able to have pretty much unrestricted access? Is that covered at all?
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It's not covered in the documentary, but we know from interviews that Ubisoft wanted to show the world what it means to develop a new IP AAA. SO he had no restraint at all for 4 years, he could speak with whom he wanted and include whatever he wanted ( you can see the CEO of Ubisoft Montreal fighting with the head of marketing for example).

This is so cool from Ubisoft, allowing everything to be shown. Ultimately the director decided to edit it as a triple AAA industry documentary rather than a For Honor documentary
 
Overflow

Overflow

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Assenzio said:
It's not covered in the documentary, but we know from interviews that Ubisoft wanted to show the world what it means to develop a new IP AAA. SO he had no restraint at all for 4 years, he could speak with whom he wanted and include whatever he wanted ( you can see the CEO of Ubisoft Montreal fighting with the head of marketing for example).

This is so cool from Ubisoft, allowing everything to be shown. Ultimately the director decided to edit it as a triple AAA industry documentary rather than a For Honor documentary
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Yeah, honestly, even if Ubi wanted to sanitise it a bit, it's still super cool they gave the filmmakers the greenlight in the first place. Really admirable of them; there just isn't enough documentary type insights into the games industry out in popular culture. I think we as an industry stand to gain a lot from demystifying the process and giving a broader audience some insight into just how brutal and miraculous making a video game is compared to, say, a Hollywood film.
 
Assenzio

Assenzio

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Overflow said:
Yeah, honestly, even if Ubi wanted to sanitise it a bit, it's still super cool they gave the filmmakers the greenlight in the first place. Really admirable of them; there just isn't enough documentary type insights into the games industry out in popular culture. I think we as an industry stand to gain a lot from demystifying the process and giving a broader audience some insight into just how brutal and miraculous making a video game is compared to, say, a Hollywood film.
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I agree. I am sad to see this topic empty. Maybe change the title to AAA documentary rather than For Honor might help.

In this film we have a glimpse of many reasons of negative results in gaming, like missing ports for Switch, cut content, buggy launches etc... I hope as many people as possible watch this
 
mutantmagnet

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I can imagine it being draining for every member but I hope I have the fortitude to withstand that breakdown. In some ways I feel the dream/vision he had wasn't fully realized. I feel like there should have been some type of NPC faction system in place so you have "people" to protect or gain honor with.
 
Thorrgal

Thorrgal

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Oct 26, 2017
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So I just finished and wow, it's so much better than I expected it to be.

Great insight into game development
 
elenarie

elenarie

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Highly recommend it. It's quite good. More focus on the emotional aspects of working on a game rather than the technical or management aspects.
 
Koozek

Koozek

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Very interesting watch, thanks for the thread. There should be more documentaries like this for AAA games.
 

Deleted member 9100

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Thanks for posting. Wasn't aware of this.

Watched it today and found it really interesting.

Really felt bad for how Jason got screwed over. He was a really passionate guy and put his heart into it. And then at the end just had it all taken away from him.
 
DaciaJC

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Is there anywhere else this is available other than Netflix? I'm a huge fan of For Honor and I've always wondered why Jason Vandenberge left so quickly after (or maybe a bit before) the game's launch, seeing as he'd had the nucleus of the game's combat system in his head for years and years.
 
chainlinkspiral

chainlinkspiral

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A fairly intense, thoughtful and straightforward look at the passions and perils of game development. Good stuff.
 
machinaea

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Also a recommendation from here; even with it's limited screen-time it does quite a decent job in showcasing the personal struggles that most game developers, especially those in a leadership or directorial roles, have. Speaking of which, I think it also speaks volume about the complexity of game development when a full-fledged documentary can barely scratch alone the surface of the personal struggles of 3 different people, let alone 500 people and let alone the actual hands-down work they do for thousands and thousands of hours to realize a game.

mutantmagnet said:
I can imagine it being draining for every member but I hope I have the fortitude to withstand that breakdown. In some ways I feel the dream/vision he had wasn't fully realized. I feel like there should have been some type of NPC faction system in place so you have "people" to protect or gain honor with.
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One thing to remember is that, in the end Jason says that this was the first title he had ever shipped where he didn't hate the game the next day. He also mentions how this was the best he could make it, which to me is also a reference to the fact that the game, the end product, is ultimately the effort of 500+ people. At that point the end result is so much more than your personal work, it's about how you can come together as team and ship something better than any individual on the team, and that it will always be anything but an individual effort and vision.

Spoo said:
Watched this last night. Left me a bit cold, to be honest: Ubisoft doesn't come off looking very good, since there are a few moments that echo the real problems we are seeing with crunch and depression, and the documentary (in my opinion) doesn't have anything useful to say about that and in some ways actually seems to glorify it.
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I can sort of understand that viewpoint too, but I think it's noteworthy that for a lead to be able to take time off for mental health is fantastic and unfortunately not something every studio allows yet. The struggles the people talk about also sort of extend to game development as a whole, but of course that is not necessarily common knowledge. But I do agree that it would have been nice to have these people send a positive message about not glorifying such measures (in fact you can also see the costs in the documentary, the people leaving during production and after is a massive cost that ultimately sort of contributes to why game development is so expensive).
 
elenarie

elenarie

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TAH3145 said:
Thanks for posting. Wasn't aware of this.

Watched it today and found it really interesting.

Really felt bad for how Jason got screwed over. He was a really passionate guy and put his heart into it. And then at the end just had it all taken away from him.
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Don't feel bad. In the industry, dreams are meant to be broken if you want your game to ship on time. Don't take this the wrong way, but developing a game is all about making compromises with the involved stakeholders and working together with them to put forth the best thing you could come up with in the time that you have with the resources you are given. Most of the times, that means going away from the original vision of the person that at one point may have been leading the project. :)

Additionally, he himself said that he is hard to work with, and that when under pressure, he does not feel like he can be polite and control what he's saying. Even in the video there are several times where he is rude to others, and that behaviour might have rubbed them off the wrong way. I'm sure they also put everything they had to see the game ship. It's a fine balance between preserving your dream and learning to let go. :)
 

Neilg

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Nov 16, 2017
711
Genuinely cant believe this just came out, i had no idea it was being made.
I've spent the last few months working on a gameplan to switch industry and move into a production / creative director role within games. The move is a year or two out, but i'm really looking forward to seeing this and getting a peek behind the curtain.

I've got 16 years working in a CG studio with 6 of those as a CD / partner, problem is my industry caps out at 20-30 person teams and I want to eventually work on something more ambitious with a bigger audience.
 
crazillo

crazillo

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Apr 5, 2018
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Good insight into what it takes mentally to develop games. I am a researcher and while I work a lot and often put a lot of stress on myself, I wouldn't want this life that was presented in the documentary.

Two sentences that really stuck with me:

"Entertainment is philosophy in motion"

"Good days end. Bad days thankfully also end"
 
Alienous

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Oct 25, 2017
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That was an engaging watch. I don't think there was much to the first hour of the documentary, but I felt like it conveyed the excitement of a creative process. It really came together in the last 20 minutes or so seeing someone who had contributed something personal to a dire effort dealing with being perceived as inessential, or a hindrance, to its future success. I think I recall Patrice Désilets having a similar relationship to Assassin's Creed.

Definitely worth watching.
 
Aswitch

Aswitch

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Nov 27, 2017
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Watched it last night. Man is it heavy. I definitely feel for the guy. To put your soul into a project to see it be the best it can be to see that you can no longer work on it can be pretty hard to bear i'd assume. It was really cool to see a game that I've played (and still play) alot see all of the what went into the creation of it through literally the whole cycle. Gave me a whole newfound appreciate for the game for sure.
 
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