Brad Wardell Offers a “Mea Culpa” Over Elemental’s Release

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 3, 2010

Brad Wardell is an indie. A big indie, in charge of a part-business-app and part-gaming company, Stardock. He’s one of the good guys. He wrote up the “Gamer’s Bill of Rights.” He makes the kinds of games the mainstream guys don’t make any more. His solution to piracy is (in part) to make games for the customers, not the pirates.

And, I should note, the complete version of Stardock’s Galactic Civilizations 2 with both expansions is pretty much awesome with a side of awesome smothered with awesome sauce.

Earlier this week I shared that ancient little note from Richard Garriott where he offered an explanation – and almost an apology – for Ultima VIII. There were comments (including from me) about how devs today don’t take that kind of ownership and responsibility. Except the indies, usually.

Well, Wardell – the indie – has now done just that. I’ve not played Stardock’s newly-released Elemental: War of Magic. But apparently, the launch hasn’t gone so well. And Wardell owned up to it, took responsibility, and… well. I dunno. As a developer, I can’t read his public apology and not feel sympathetic pains. That could be me… with any game I make.

He makes some painful – if vague – admissions of what went wrong. Though when I read, “I don’t think people yet fully realize the completeness of Stardock’s fail on Elemental’s launch,” I wonder if he’s beating himself up a tad much. He’s used to releasing games that receive rave reviews. I don’t know. But it sounds like he’s going to be pulling out all the stops to salvage things on what sounded like a promising concept. I hope they succeed.

Filed Under: Biz - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

BR41ND34D said,

I’ve just been reading the forum posts Brad made on the Elemental website, and I must admit that there’s not many companies around that can admit they are wrong. And his admission he was wrong is a VERY strong admission. What I really like about it all is the utter commitment that he shows to make Elemental he game he wanted it to be in the first place.
One lesson any game developer should learn from this is: Listen to your Beta Testers. Apparently they already realized the game was not quite what the dev’s thought but they were ignored, probably because the emotional engagement that Brad & co. had with the game.
Robyrt said,

What makes this weird is that Stardock did this with their last game release too (the bits of Demigod that broke on release were Stardock’s bits, not GPG’s bits). You’d think they would at least be able to change their distributor after they broke the street date TWICE.
Viridian said,

I was laid off (along with about fifteen other people) from Stardock this morning due to Elemental’s disastrous reviews and sales.

It was the first round of layoffs Stardock has ever had to do.

Stardock will never be the same again.
McTeddy said,

“EVERY competent software developer knows that the programmer must never be the one deciding whether the program is done”

This is one of statements that is so true, yet so easy to overlook. Even overlooking the fact that that people get attached to the work… programmers usually focus on function more than polish than the average player will because they have seen the improvements over the development.

I respect the fact that he is owning up to his mistakes, but I also need to look at the issues that he “overlooked”. The game crashes in dozens of places a large portion of the time, the AI didn’t have it’s defensive functions in, and the game’s multi-player was never turned on.

Even a programmer can see when something isn’t functioning. Flawed… half done… we can easily overlook, but these were massive CLEAR issues that should have delayed the launch.

He’s not a company like EA that ships a title with the sole intention of screwing the users out of their money, and he shouldn’t act like one. Apology or not, his loss of credibility was well earned by breaking his own Gamer’s Right Number 2 and releasing an unfinished title.

I wish him luck, because I do know even the best make mistakes. But it’s going to take more than an apology to convince me that he’s actually learned his lesson.
Andy_Panthro said,

It’s a real shame though, because they’re going to start getting a reputation for releasing buggy or unfinished games.

I hope they’re more careful with future releases and learn their lesson, or they may end up with the reaction that Obsidian always get when they release something new.
Rampant Coyote said,

Viridian – I’m truly sorry, dude. That’s a major suck. When generals make mistakes, it’s the soldiers that get killed. I wish you the best in coming endeavors.
McTeddy said,

Jeez… I didn’t see Viridian’s post when I wrote mine. Now I feel like a real jerk.

I too am sorry about the situation. I never like to see a company reach that point.

I wish you luck in your search.