Six and a half years have passed since we previously talked with Derek Yu and Jon Perry about UFO 50, and to play 35 of the 50 games planned for this ludicrously ambitious collection. At the time, we concluded: "There's still plenty of work to be done if it's to hit its planned launch late next year". Looking back, it's hard not to detect a note of caution in our words - one that perhaps should have been a full-blown symphony. A project that was originally expected to take two to three years will provided the Mossmouth team can stick to their new release window of late 2024 - have taken just over eight. So, upon reconvening with the pair after all this time, our first question can only be: what happened? "Fifty games!" Perry laughs. "Who knew that it would take so long to make 50 games? Who could have possibly guessed?"
For his part, Yu points towards an axiom we've heard from many developers over the years, that games always seem to be six months from being done. Here, though, that effect was multiplied over and over. "That number, 50, is pretty hard to wrap your head around," he says. "A task that takes a week? That's not a long time in game-development terms. But you multiply it by 50, and that's a whole year."
Not that they ever considered reducing the number, he insists: "Fifty was the first threshold where it really just punched you in the face." Early in development, Perry suggested halving the number. "To me, 25... it just felt like half of 50," Yu says. "Like a halfway point." That conversation was long before the scope of the undertaking had become apparent, he adds: "It was pretty unclear, at that point, how involved each game was going to be." Now, though, as the project finally nears its end, Perry has begun to wonder if the developers mightn't have simply chosen to ignore the reality of what lay ahead of them.
Denne historien er fra June 2024-utgaven av Edge UK.
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Denne historien er fra June 2024-utgaven av Edge UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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CHANTS OF SENNAAR
How Babel helped a world of stealth become a world of words
MEGHNA JAYANTH
Around the industry in eight games: one writer's journey through indie to triple-A and back again.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist
Sam Fisher's final outing is also his most enigmatic
Post Script
How low should a boss go?
TWO POINT STUDIOS
How a new studio rose from the ashes of Lionhead success not simulated
RAIDERS OF THE ARCHIVE
Wolfenstein-style shootouts are just a small part of the picture in MachineGames' maximalist Indy game
SPLITGATE 2
If it ain't broke, don't fix Split
KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE II
A bigger, better - and funnier Bohemian rhapsody
Narrative Engine
Write it like you stole it
The Outer Limits
Journeys fo the farthest reaches of interactive entertainment