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GAMING NEWS

Darksiders II Designer Speaks Out On Conditions During Development

Posted on Wednesday, August 15 @ 16:30:13 Eastern by

If I hadn't said anything, nobody would've even noticed. Who reads credits anyway? No one. I know it probably doesn't even matter. But you know, what? I read them. It matters. After the hell that I went through, after giving Vigil everything and more, like so many others, after doing my job and doing it well and leading with no support, in record time... once I saw the credits, I simply couldn't stand to let that pass.

That's Xander Davis, a UI designer on Darksiders II who's taken to Twitter to speak out about how he was treated by management at Vigil Games. Davis continues:

What's crazy is most aspiring game developers have no idea yet how shitty it is to work in triple-A. My life has been a nightmare for 3 yrs. Let's say it'd be pretty crazy with 30 days left to ship to revamp the UI, that wasn't good enough. Vigil kept pushing harder.

Destructoid reports and notes that late hours, at one point falling asleep at his desk only to wake up and work 14 hours straight on the weekend. Davis was then terminated. Vigil Games General Manager David Adams', who is named by Davis along with Herb Ellwood, the developer who eventually obtained Davis's job title, said:

While employment and privacy laws preclude us from discussing the circumstances surrounding the departure of any individual no longer with the company, we can confirm that the employee in question worked for us a total of 90 days, whereas Darksiders II was more than 2 ½ years in development.

When we were forced to reduce staff due to the cancellation of a project, we worked hard to ensure every single person effected by the layoff received their credit in the game. We did not include individuals whose employment terminated for any other reason, for example, being let go for documented poor performance.

Yeesh, someone get these cats away from each other! No, but seriously, this back forth isn't going to reflect well on anybody. Adams continues:

To reiterate, Vigil's primary concern while doing Darksiders II credits was that we credited team members that were affected by the recent downsizing. We were not focused on the issue of employees that voluntarily left or were fired from the company. We find it alarming that a former employee would personally attack and lie about other team members while falsely inflating his contribution to the game.

Another anonymous employee has also defended Herb Ellwood, despite also tempering his statement by agreeing that conditions were a little fishy at the studio.

We'll update with more if we hear anything.
Related Games:   Darksiders II


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Comments
  • 213EDD
    213EDD

    Joined: Sep 2007
    Posted: Aug 15th, 2012 at 5:06 pm
    Throw in the fact that this is THQ and they need this to be a huge success, It is completely believable that they've pushed their employees.
  • danielrbischoff
    danielrbischoff

    Joined: Nov 2009
    Posted: Aug 15th, 2012 at 7:04 pm
    Or that some bill **** controversy is being used to raise awareness of a game.
  • Ranim
    Ranim

    Joined: Nov 2005
    Posted: Aug 15th, 2012 at 6:05 pm
    Its very common for developers to do the kinds of things that he is complaining about. The last few months is when you see a lot of sleeping bags under desks. The unfortunate thing is that developers are being given smaller and smaller timeframes to create games. Most devs are trying to push games out within a little over a year, so these crunches are more protracted and intense. Its also quite common for people to quit if they know they're about to get sacked so the fact that they were fired doesn't impede their ability to get hired. Then again, speaking out like this will likely do worse for his career.
  • danielrbischoff
    danielrbischoff

    Joined: Nov 2009
    Posted: Aug 15th, 2012 at 7:05 pm
    In reference to my response to EDD, this could also be a move on his behalf to raise awareness for his new "studio" and the projects he's working on.
  • 213EDD
    213EDD

    Joined: Sep 2007
    Posted: Aug 15th, 2012 at 7:45 pm
    you're overestimating Xander
  • 213EDD
    213EDD

    Joined: Sep 2007
    Posted: Aug 15th, 2012 at 7:57 pm
    In fact Astrogun (his other project) has be listed on his page since before he worked for Vigil, and anyways its not like they're listing a title or project progression (as far as we know). Then also the whole fact that other people are coming out and saying it as well
  • sliverstorm
    sliverstorm

    Joined: Jun 2007
    Posted: Aug 15th, 2012 at 7:47 pm
    That is one seriously unprofessional response from Vigil Games. Someone take the mic away from David Adams, holy ****.
  • Kakulukia
    Kakulukia

    Joined: Nov 2005
    Posted: Aug 15th, 2012 at 9:13 pm
    One used copy of Darksiders II, please!

    Seriously, even if the guy only worked for a few months, and even if he was fired, he contributed to the game, and deserves to be credited.
  • 213EDD
    213EDD

    Joined: Sep 2007
    Posted: Aug 15th, 2012 at 10:06 pm
    since they still use his U.I. and all...
  • NecroWolf
    NecroWolf

    Joined: Oct 2005
    Posted: Aug 18th, 2012 at 10:59 am
    Despite popular rumor, they don't use his U.I. It is kinda-sorta based off of it, but it isn't his.
  • ShadeTail
    ShadeTail

    Joined: Nov 2006
    Posted: Aug 16th, 2012 at 8:46 am
    I'm not so sure it's as black-and-white as you think, Kakulukia. Since getting into the spotlight, Davis has ranted some incredibly ignorant and unprofessional things, including about the Wii U version of the game that's coming out later. Here's a rather long interview in which he frequently goes off the rails.

    www.notenoughshaders.com/2012/08/15/darksiders​-2-interview-with-xander-davis-about-thq-and-vigil/

    I​t's not clear that he's in the right.

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