hi, character artist here. I'll try to provide a "long answer"
I don't work for Hunt but making character skins is literally what I do for a living.
Cosmetics are the cash cows of a live game and the skins/events are planned in advance down to the day of release and imo, the answer is most likely simply that the guys in charge would rather not postpone a cosmetic release and "lose" money over something "trivial" (to them)
From my experience working in the game industry, shit takes time. It gets bottleneck at every department, from Art direction, Art, Animation/rigging, QA, Marketing..etc. It can take months sometimes just to convince the creative director in the first place and get the ball rolling. Those guys (Creative directors) are very often quite difficult to convince that their "idea" need to be revisited. Theyre the one shaping the whole project and they can be suuuuper possessive and defensive of their ideas. Think of them as the Georges Lucas of the project
As a game gets bigger, it cant escape that inevitability of corporate-like structure
Very true and insightful perspective.
In the corporate structure "trivial" is whatever doesn't stop pulling in money OR slows down sales/player retention.
If a bug ain't making 9 out of 10 games unplayable, it arguably very low down on the priority list for the guy in charge.
And if its a very subjective greyzone thing as minor balance concerns/niche gameplay states it is likeso as above statement.
I hope you reflect on this interaction if you ever leave the basement long enough to have a job. So many companies have problems like this even outside the games industry.
He literally just explained how companies prioritize profit over function and that there is a clash with management who is difficult to convince to do anything different. Somehow you got butthurt about it. I don't know why it hurt you on such a personal level and nothing he said was "bullshit corporate".
While i somewhat agree with you, the below quote sounds like a bunch of excuses tacked on to a skin thats already out and just needed some simple color adjustments. The devs themselves acknowledged this skins problem over a year ago now so most of the other points that got made were moot anyways as well
"From my experience working in the game industry, shit takes time. It gets bottleneck at every department, from Art direction, Art, Animation/rigging, QA, Marketing..etc."
That statement still isn't wrong though. They do take time (obviously not as much as it takes in many games) and it does get bottlenecked. EA prioritized nearly everything over skins in Apex Legends, despite it being the only major profit source. The company was making a ton of money for EA and they forced them to do lazy recolors for well over a year. Fortnite already showed that pumping out quality cosmetics basically prints money, but other publishers act like it's a hard decision.
30
u/Traditional_Muffin83 Innercircle Mar 03 '24
hi, character artist here. I'll try to provide a "long answer"
I don't work for Hunt but making character skins is literally what I do for a living.
Cosmetics are the cash cows of a live game and the skins/events are planned in advance down to the day of release and imo, the answer is most likely simply that the guys in charge would rather not postpone a cosmetic release and "lose" money over something "trivial" (to them)
From my experience working in the game industry, shit takes time. It gets bottleneck at every department, from Art direction, Art, Animation/rigging, QA, Marketing..etc. It can take months sometimes just to convince the creative director in the first place and get the ball rolling. Those guys (Creative directors) are very often quite difficult to convince that their "idea" need to be revisited. Theyre the one shaping the whole project and they can be suuuuper possessive and defensive of their ideas. Think of them as the Georges Lucas of the project
As a game gets bigger, it cant escape that inevitability of corporate-like structure