Area 51's Lead Designer Admits Project Was 'F'd Up'

Wired has up an interview with Blacksite: Area 51's lead designer Harvey Smith. Smith is well known for his work on great games like Deus Ex and System Shock, but his latest title is getting a lot of negative press. In the interview, Smith as much as admits the team failed in their quest to make a great game. "'We got hammered so hard [by reviewers], and we deserved it ... Everyone was forced to share tech. It took eight months to get one thing working.' He wouldn't specify what that one thing was, but did note that technical problems set the team back, time and time again. Another of Smith's complaints was 'the fact that we had four days to Orange Box something,' meaning to fix and polish a level. Smith called this 'completely reprehensible.'" Kind of shocking to see this kind of honesty from the games industry.

Comments

Which area 51 are we talking about?

[damn_registrars]

I first thought we were talking about the government facility where we might or might not have extraterrestrials. Then I figured you meant a game designer, so I thought we were talking about the arcade game from a few years back (get off my lawn...) where you blasted extraterrestrials in the government facility where we may or many not have extraterrestrials.

But as for this product, I for one have never even heard of it. I have no idea why its delays would be at all important.