An interesting video by the German editors of Game Two has appeared on YouTube, in which the reasons for the failure of one of the worst-rated games in recent years are analyzed.
The Game Two video includes statements from the Gollum developers themselves, the authors of such great adventure games as Deponia, Silence and The Whispered World.
The authors’ statements paint a picture of a publisher who does not care about developers at all. The developers claim that the apology that appeared in the post-release Gollum release was “written” using ChatGPT, and the now closed Daedalic studio did not even know that Nacon had prepared such a text.
In the video, the authors revealed that Gollum’s budget was approximately EUR 15 million, which is definitely too small a sum for such a project – say former Daedalic employees.
“People with 20 years of experience in the industry, really talented people, worked on the game. Unfortunately, they couldn’t create a great production with a very limited budget,” said Paul Schulze.
In the video, the developers talk about many scenes cut from the game that were planned but were scrapped for financial reasons. In many cases, the band had already recorded dubbing, but there were not enough funds to make cutscenes, so only audio is played in the game. The authors also say that the system of “quarrels” between Gollum and Smeagol was basically never completed . Its graphical presentation was supposed to be much richer, but the developers failed to implement it due to time constraints and a small budget.
Nacon decided – despite the huge criticism of the game – to prepare the production for Switch (the premiere will take place soon). The version for the Nintendo console is being developed without the participation of the Daedalic team, which has been closed.
Source: videogameschronicle