Darkest of Days postmortem has some bright spots

by Justin McElroy on Nov 27th 2009 6:00PM

It's very easy to roundly dismiss a game that most people don't think is very good -- heck, we do it all the time. But we think before you make with the lambasting, you should have to read a postmortem article, like this one on Gamasutra from 8monkey, the developer of Darkest of Days.

Where many terrible games just appear to be rush jobs, the folks working on Darkest of Days (which hovers between a 45 and 52 on Metacritic, depending on platform) seem to be a nice enough group just doing the best with what they had (which, of course, was not enough money, time nor manpower).

A compelling postmortem isn't going to make Darkest of Days a better game (it's a long ways off from that), but maybe it'll make us all slightly nicer people.

Source

Tags: 8monkey-labs, darkest-of-days, fps, marmoset, Microsoft, post-mortem, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (51)

The idea was really fun, I'll give em another shot, hopefully a publisher does too.

Agree. I loved the storyline, and the mechanics were OK. Just too limited and crappy graphics drew me away. I feel bad almost. 8monkey labs can do better, I someone just sees the diamond behind all the dirt.

Surprisingly, I thought this game was one of the funnest games I played all year. The idea of the game was good and it's always fun to shoot 50 people at once with a a machine gun. After I reed the article, its shocking how they push the game out as quick as they did. To bad the game did as bad as it did, cause the game was awesome.
Btw, did you guys know there's a 100G achievement for punching a horse. I know, awesome right!

The concept of Darkest of Days was really good. It was just it's execution (very loose controls, not very compelling graphics) was poor. Give those guy's the money that some of the bigger houses have, and it could've been a very fun game.

I was thinking the same thing. In my opinion, they did pretty well with what they had.

*peeks around the corner*

Goes back to playing the stack of games acquired on this day.

Oh another thing, the title of this game is kind of ironic, considering what day it is.

WHERE IZ ZE CHOCOLATE?

Not you again. And no, I didn't go at 5 am. I went around 10 this morning, got NBA 2k10 at walmart for 25 bucks, and then on to Target to get Arkham Asylum for 34.

Oh and "wassup dawg" *clears throat* Yous just hatin' yo, cuz you 2 getto n poor to by ne thin on blak fry day yo! yo mamma didn evan get yo ass a 2thbrush out o da bargain bin fo yo skanky bitch ass...
...
..
dawg.

wat

What's funny is this guy's probably whiter than Cody, and probably lives in malibu.

You're probably right, TMac. But, I don't get it though, why would someone pretend to be the retarded self-conscious excrement of Flava Flav?

I don't get the point of the whole trolling thing. Lack of attention and a shit-load of sexual frustration perhaps?

Judging by your....writing style, I would be shocked if you even knew how to read a map to get to my house.

@wasssup dog

Are you planning on getting into an accident on the way to tmac's house?

Can't wait.

Oh, and to further MystileArmor's argument- I just bought a 120gb PS3 Slim w/ Ratchet and Clank + Little Big Planet for 300$ at 5:00 PM (PM!!!) at Best Buy.

So, yeah, I didn't get up early, and I just bought my (first- wohhoooo) PS3 for a great price.
Stay at home and use your "tootbrush", "dawg".

oh, your mom drove all right.

Don't ban this guy, he's hilarious. A fake gangster from Ohio with Onstar in his car. Gold.

I really enjoyed Darkest of Days. There were a lot of things lacking, but the game was still fun. The reload mechanic was a really good idea and I felt was done pretty well. The graphics weren't all that great, but the game was fun. And that's what matters in a video game. I'd go watch a movie or look at art if all I wanted was something to look pretty.

The game was so bad I couldn't even finish it, and I rented it to get an easy 1000. For a game that looked as bad as it did, the framerate was awful. Unique idea that would have worked in a more competent developer's hands.

You rent bad games to increase your virtual e-peen which only 12-year-olds care about?

That would imply that I brag about my gamerscore, which I don't.

Even terrible looking games can have shit performance it comes down to how good the code is not what its pushing on screen.

When your visuals are as bad as they were in DoD, there's a lack of basic polish that easily carries over to it's "gameplay".

I use quotes, because the entire game was completely garbage.

Yo dawg I heard you like trolls so we put some troll in your troll so you can troll while you troll.

Is that Source engine?

Please... It's the Medal of Honor Underground engine.

It's their own engine they built called the Marmoset engine. It's on the first page of the article.

Wow, a whole sentence spelled right. Good job. Also, calling the kettle black a bit, perhaps?

+100 Internets Burnflare :D

He could have at least spelled it "spamma". Stay in character.

I played this one based on the fact that the demo was SO god awful. The best part of the demo was when you got an arrow shot into your nuts, and you had the body strength to sit completely upright at a 90 degree angle. Hilarious!

The article isn't bad, but they give themselves and their game WAY too much credit. The AI is wack, the dialogue is amateur, the level design is basic, the plot is throwaway. There was almost no QA testing done in the process it seems as well.

The only cool moment of the game is when you get the futuristic Javelin looking weapon that fired 5 rockets into the air, and you controlled where they landed with a targeting laser. Too bad you only had that gun for 45 seconds.

Still want to know who's that in your avatar... :)

@Shiaoran
Her pornstar name is Threedee Pigu.

I don't think her name is 3D Pig :P

From my phones pov it looks like Milla Jovavich in the 5th element, or RE. She has similar scenes in both.

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww247/jynxycats/joystiq-1.jpg

Wow, that picture is best left tiny.

Thanks (finally) XD

And I already know her :P

I remember reading about the game's plot (didn't hear the title) and was really excited. Then I tried finding the exact game and it took over an hour of searching to find it. I told my friend about it and we were both looking forward to the game. Then it came out and all it's problems were reviewed. Once it drops in price I'll get it just because the plot sounds awesome.

It definitely was a creative idea and got my attention. Hopefully they get an earlier notice about if their next game is going to consoles. If the gameplay had been up to par with the idea, then it would've been a huge seller.

you need to slow yo troll.

A very good read. This is exactly why we're seeing so much consolidation. The small studios simply can't compete. Most top tier AAA titles are created by teams of over 200 people who spend 2-3 years solid on one project with a budget approaching $100 million; not including marketing. They started this project with just 4 people who had never shipped a game before? And created their own engine in the process? It really is quite astounding that this title made it through certification, let alone to market. This would have been an ambitious project for even the most experienced and well-funded studios. At least they came away with plenty of hard-earned lessons. Too bad they couldn't spend more time on it. I feel their pain, but can also understand their sense of pride.

The good thing that came out of this game was the hilarious Quicklook.

Want to see how flawed modern review scores are? Look at this game. It's one of the biggest turds I've ever seen and it's hovering around what should be "Mediocre".

Yeah, the problem with the 1-10 scale is that some people think of it as the A-F scale. A 7/10 is supposedly mediocre when that is not how the 1-10 scale is built.

If you know you dont have the money, time, or resources to do what you wanted to do, then you should make a game around your budget. There are plenty of great indie games

You either cut back on the engine to make a compelling story and hack your story up to work on your engine.

Oh, the irony. "wassup dawg" telling someone off for spamming nonsense.

Translation for your petty mind:
Datz ironikk daaawwg

I'd gladly give this game a go, however there is no PAL version.

Here is the thing, the entire article boiled down to developers pitying themselves about not having enough cash for this amazing concept. Well, too bad. If you have only 1 million $ then make a game that costs 1 million $ instead of trying to make a game that costs 50 million $.

There are developers who became extremely successful by creating great games on a low budget. This studio is neither first nor last who will try to make a game they have no resources to make. I have no pity for people who lack planning skills in a business where you have to plan years ahead.

The best part of the game:
getting an achievement for killing a horse, by punching it in the face...

I played it all the way through, and those guys did have a good sense of humour after the game ends and you and the dev team have to defend yourselves in a firefight.

With a lil more polish, it would've been a good game. I liked the premise, it's a shame there wasn't more future weapons for slaughtering the old timey folk.

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Darkest of Days postmortem has some bright spots

Reader Comments (51)

Posted: Nov 27th 2009 6:07PM Shagittarius said

Posted: Nov 27th 2009 6:17PM Special Agent Steve said

Posted: Nov 28th 2009 1:39AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 27th 2009 6:08PM Demon G Sides said

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Posted: Nov 27th 2009 6:09PM MystileArmor said

Posted: Nov 27th 2009 6:13PM MystileArmor said

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