[TRENCHES] Tuesday, March 27, 2012 - Congregation

Geth

Congregation
http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/congregation

Loss of Words

Anonymous

About two years ago I was hired through a temp agency to test what I was told would be a very “small” game. I took the job, thinking it would last maybe three or four weeks, and immediately started working.

My first day I was asked if I could read proficiently, to which I responded “yes.”

From that point on, for fifty-five hours a week, I was placed in a small corner and made to read the entire text of this game. This lasted nearly two months. The kick of all this however was that the game’s recorded audio was completely different from the text I was reading. My boss just wanted someone to double check that the story made sense in case the game was popular and spawned a book or attachment story.

This is going to sound like a tease, but I’ll tell you that this “small” game ended up being a huge seller, but the NDA I signed won’t allow me to tell you the real story behind the main character.

Antimatter

okay
who wants to figure out what game this was

Falx

First thought was Bastion, but two years ago rules that out.

Possibly an XBLA game?

Chubes

Maybe Mirror's Edge

Dark Raven X

Mirror's Edge is 4 years old!

I wanna say Bastion too, but that was July last year. Maybe the whole story proofreading was way before that though?

Arivia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_in_video_gaming

Possible answers:
Bayonetta
Heavy Rain
Assassin's Creed II
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Darksiders
Halo: Reach
Vanquish
Infinity Blade
Medal of Honour

Out of all of those, I'm thinking Darksiders is most likely. (Reconsidering "small," Infinity Blade jumps up a bunch of notches.)

agoaj

No one was concerned about Bayonetta making sense.

darleysam

Well if it's working back from now, the game was in development 'about' two years ago and he was hired in to check through all the text, which took two months. So there's a good chance it released in 2011 instead.

Aurich

Also, this story could have been in the bank since sometime last yea.

EDIT: Wait, it could have, right? When did Trenches start?

zepherin

Also it was considered a "small game" which made it big, had a lot of text, but the studio wasn't large enough to do it in house at the time, so something text heavy, came out between 2010-2011 (if development ended in first or second quarter 2010 it is feasible the game came out at xmas 2010), has recorded audio, and was a good seller.

I like Infinity Blade for this one. Vanquish, Heavy Rain, and Bayonetta were not made in the US, and this seamed to give me the impression that he was working for the developer and not just doing localization work. Darksiders is also a strong possibility, and the other game studios are too big.

So Infinity Blade and Darksiders are decent guesses for 2010. Out of that list, if someone who is less lazy than me wants to publish a list of likely's from 2011 we can do that too.

collinc

If it took him two months to listen to the audio and read the text I think that rules out Infinity Blade. I also think we should rule out any sequels, as it wouldn't be surprising if any of those made it big.

DesertChicken

Remember, the text is different than the spoken dialogue.

darleysam

zepherin wrote: »

Also it was considered a "small game" which made it big, had a lot of text, but the studio wasn't large enough to do it in house at the time, so something text heavy, came out between 2010-2011 (if development ended in first or second quarter 2010 it is feasible the game came out at xmas 2010), has recorded audio, and was a good seller.

I like Infinity Blade for this one. Vanquish, Heavy Rain, and Bayonetta were not made in the US, and this seamed to give me the impression that he was working for the developer and not just doing localization work. Darksiders is also a strong possibility, and the other game studios are too big.

So Infinity Blade and Darksiders are decent guesses for 2010. Out of that list, if someone who is less lazy than me wants to publish a list of likely's from 2011 we can do that too.

Vanquish and Bayonetta didn't really sell that well, I'd be surprised if they'd be described as being 'huge sellers'. Darksiders I thought did okay, but not too huge either. Not played Infinity Blade myself, so I know nothing about how text-heavy it is.

Ori Klein

My money is on Darksiders. I don't know Infinity Blades, but a lot of things make sense for it to be Darksiders.

DivideByZero

There's no way Infinity Blade could have generated enough backstory text to justify a single 55-hour workweek reading it, let alone multiple weeks. There was barely any text in the actual game (I guess the novella would count...?) and all the audio dialogue was recorded in some bizarre slavic sounding language.

Oufour

Assassin's Creed II sounds like it would need someone whose sole purpose is making sure it makes sense.

Actually now that I look at my avatar could new Vegas count? Not exactly a "small" game but certainly has enough text to justify 55 hour work weeks.

dragonscave

Would L.A. Noire fit? Certainly dialogue heavy. Not small, but he has small in quotes...

Oufour

LA Noire sounds like something who's creators would picture a book deal for. Also I don't know if I'd consider LA Norie a particularly big game to begin with.

collinc

The story writer should just tell us. I can't see how an NDA would apply to a released game. They typically apply to only things that are not general public knowledge.

L.A. Noire makes the most sense, but I would think they would have more dedicated testers. The company I work for doesn't make as big games as L.A. Noire but we have plenty of testers.

AnderFREAK

Considering the massive size of the team and the doubt that I have that anyone at Rockstar wasn't sure LA Noire would sell like hotcakes, it sounds like a pretty unlikely candidate.

Although, the author might have a different perception of a "small" team than we do. I'm doubting we'll ever be able to get consensus on this without more clues.

Oufour

I don't really know a lot about game development, but games are pretty huge. It's possible that Team Bondi is actually pretty small by comparison to other companies. Plus Team Bondi was pretty poorly managed so it's possible they didn't make the progress they should have.

And it's always possible they tell temps the game's not a big deal to discourage leaks. I mean if you leaked the ending to something like bastion I don't think a lot of people would be chomping at the bit for it, and you'd just seem like a dick.

MosBen

What about Dragon Age? That seems like a game where they'd be thinking about possible book spinoffs.

MosBen

And I took the quotes around "small" to be scare/sarcastic quotes. Possibly this guy was lied to by the company that he'd be working on a small game.

gigabums

None of the games mentioned here are actually "small", except Bastion.

It would be nice if we'd get other clues, like whether the quotes were for emphasis or to denote sarcasm.

zepherin

collinc wrote: »

The story writer should just tell us. I can't see how an NDA would apply to a released game. They typically apply to only things that are not general public knowledge.

L.A. Noire makes the most sense, but I would think they would have more dedicated testers. The company I work for doesn't make as big games as L.A. Noire but we have plenty of testers.

Because with the context the person still works there, and the NDA's shelf life is that of their tenure so the NDA still applies, even when the game becomes abandon-ware. Some companies are very strict about that kind of shit. With video games it is silly, however an NDA for a software developer with a company like Seimens is far more significant even with 10 year old products.

Kochikens

Some NDA's last even if the studio dies. And most people wouldn't risk it anyways. I'm not sure why you guys are always so concerned with IDing the developer/game.

Antimatter

it's fun

Ivar

gigabums wrote: »

None of the games mentioned here are actually "small", except Bastion.

It would be nice if we'd get other clues, like whether the quotes were for emphasis or to denote sarcasm.

But quotes aren't for emphasis!

darleysam

Antimatter wrote: »

it's fun

Yeah, I enjoy the challenge, nothing more.