Stubbs developer conducts a postmortem

by Ross Miller { Aug 11th 2006 at 4:25PM }

While Stubbs the Zombie did not take over the world like it should have, Wideload Games co-founder Alex Seropian has looked back on the successes and failures of their first zombie-riffic title, an underrated gem with decent reviews.

Seropian lauds his team size -- a mere 12 people -- and how that aided in encouraging creativity and keeping production costs low. Most of Stubbs' grunt work came from contracted work with fixed costs -- another cost-cutter -- but the system required a lot more management and selectivity than Seropian planned.

Sticking to their ideals (dubbed "commandments") and having total freedom of control, Wideload Games survived their first release (with some decent sales, too, as their August 2 news post reminds us). In Seropian's words:

"That said, I wear new battle scars and have tattooed new lessons to the back of my hand so as to never forget. For anyone hoping to follow our blazing trail, or at least learn something from our foibles and fables, I hope this article helps."

For anyone interested in the behind-the-scenes workings of a developer, from either a business or financial perspective, this is a must-read.

See Also:
Stubbs creator talks business, culinary art

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Grim @ Aug 11th 2006 4:35PM

Love the picture. Darkman was on tv last night (same director as army of darkness). It's a great movie and I highly recommend it.

Chessasaur @ Aug 11th 2006 4:36PM

I played a few hours of Stubbs (I don't get alot of game time), and really enjoyed it. Creating an army of zombies to kill humans is something you don't see in many other games. :D There were a couple of times that I was a bit confused on what to do next and once or twice thought that maybe a boss battle was going to happen that didn't. (Cut for cost reasons?) I also thought that Stubbs should have been the Land of the Dead game (or that LotD should have been more like Stubbs). The head zombie in LotD was building an army of zombies like Stubbs was. But Stubbs was made for fun - if you have seen the gas station cut scene, you know what I mean!

Metacore @ Aug 11th 2006 4:46PM

Let's all hope this will not be the fate of Dead Head Fred for the PSP.

"oh yeah, and they took my freakin' head! Time to return the favour..."-Fred

Dave @ Aug 11th 2006 4:53PM

Great game.

MochaMoses @ Aug 11th 2006 4:59PM

Coincedentally I finished Stubbs for the Xbox this morning. Howabout that. I even have a buddy coming over tonight to get some co-op zombie action on.

I had high hopes for this game, and have to say that some minor faults aside, this was an incredibly entertaining title. Not since the days of Lucasarts adventures (Sam & Max Hit The Road!) have I found a game honestly funny. Laugh out loud funny. And insanely clever.

The game presented a mix of sight gags, deadpan sarcasm, and some of the best visual puns ever -- props to the Gas Station cut scene especially. The humour really made me want to keep playing the game to see where the plot went. The dialogue was sharp (the Patton scene, and everything with ex-Nazi scientist), and kept the laughs going.

It's been a while since I played a game that also had heart. You could tell this wasn't some franchise sequel but a labour of love. Check out the way Stubbs' cig lights up! Classy..!

It's increasingly rare to find that in the industry these days. If anything, I hope this gives Seropian and Wideload a chance to keep on "experimenting"

Babylonian @ Aug 11th 2006 5:15PM

One thing they absolutely nailed was the SOUNDTRACK. I never played Stubbs once, but I listen to that album at least a few times a month. Man, it's great.

I don't understand how they didn't mention that in this article, because as far as I'm concerned, the game's music is the one area in which the game could be considered an absolute success.

Neil @ Aug 11th 2006 6:07PM

Wait, wasn't there a Stubbs postmortem in Game Developer magazine a few months ago?

ben @ Aug 11th 2006 6:47PM

I played through the game a few times: once by myself and once with my girlfriend. We loved it! It was probably one of the best zombie games I've played in a long time. I'm still waiting to get my hands on a 360 and Dead Rising.

Anyway, like a few have mentioned, the soundtrack is freaking stellar. If you dig modern bands and old songs, check it out. :D

Dirk Dorkelson @ Aug 11th 2006 6:59PM

This was an interesting read. Parts of the article made what Wideload was doing feel very punk rock. Twelve people working in one room together, with the flexibility to do the game the way they want and blow past their own internal deadlines.

But the whole aspect of having a lot of work done by freelance contracters (who presumably are paid a flat fee w/no benefits, etc.) who can easily be fired/replaced sounded very, uh, un-punk rock.

Now I have a certain lack of knowledge about how games are developed, but it seems like it's difficult for an independent producer to put out a big game w/o creative or financial compromise. Maybe the best we can hope for in the realm of "punk rock games" on a console are downloadable titles like Cloning Clyde for XBLA, Virtual Console and PlayStation Entitlement Shop (or whatever they're calling it). My inner naive idealist sheds a virtual tear.

warren @ Aug 11th 2006 7:25PM

Babylonian:
[i] One thing they absolutely nailed was the SOUNDTRACK. I never played Stubbs once, but I listen to that album at least a few times a month. Man, it's great.

I don't understand how they didn't mention that in this article, because as far as I'm concerned, the game's music is the one area in which the game could be considered an absolute success. [/i]

I'm willing to bet that the Stubbs Soundtrack wasn't mentioned at all because Seropian and Wideload didn't have anything at all to do with it.

From what I've heard, Seropian wasn't even in favor of doing the Soundtrack until after it had been finished. All of the impetus to create a Stubbs Soundtrack came from the publisher (Aspyr Media) who wasn't mentioned once in the entire article.