The Difficulties of Game Dev: A Look at Anthem’s Troubled Development

Game development is a challenging and complex process that requires huge amounts of dedication and effort from teams of developers. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for projects to come together poorly due to a variety of factors, including rushed development cycles and technical issues. The recent release of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum illustrates this well, with its bugs and subpar review scores leading to an apology from the studio and promises of bug fixes. Developer Ian Saterdalen recently shared his own experience of working on Anthem, a highly-anticipated BioWare project that was released in a state far from finished. He revealed that the team had only 15 months to develop the game, which led to unsustainable working hours and the game’s overall lack of content and endgame. It also highlighted issues such as fan overreaction, working with Frostbite, and scope creep, all of which contributed to the game’s troubled development. While EA and BioWare both share responsibility for the game’s failure, Saterdalen’s story serves as a reminder that game development is hard and can lead to difficult consequences.