Brink dev says launch was rough, game found success on PC

by Alexander Sliwinski on Aug 15th 2011 10:15AM

Neil Alphonso, lead designer at Splash Damage, readily admits that Brink could have undergone a better launch. "A lot of the game's complaints were entirely valid," he said.

"It was rough, but in the end the game's done alright," Alphonso told Joystiq, shortly after his GDC Europe presentation on the ambitious shooter's development. "Key is to keep supporting the game and keep tuning it more and more."

Asked if the company was going to try a "Welcome Back" weekend after months of patching, he expressed that the recent Brink DLC, which was free for the first two weeks, along with the game's weekend discount on Steam, shot "the [sales] numbers way, way up."

Alphonso said it's too early to discuss if the game will retain a significant portion of the new players. "We still have a lot of work to do, honestly," he said, noting improvements to the overall game and its supporting tech. "We have to support those people."

Tags: Brink, gdce-2011, microsoft, neil-alphonso, pc, playstation, ps3, xbox

Reader Comments (40)

If you "still have a lot of work to do" don't ship it. I was so disappointed with Brink.

@Pascual

Totally agree. The development cycle is getting really screwed up by devleoper's dependence on patching. By the time they take the months it takes to get the multiplayer games patched up properly, hardly any one is playing it anymore, and it become irrelevent. Really dumb. I was semi tempted to get this on the Steam sale, but after playing it for several hours, I realized it still wasn't worth $25 to me, felt more like a $15 game. There's some major balancing issues.

Eventually, they'll just send out the Beta on release day, use us all as their testers, and we a get massive patches day by day.

@Pascual

Yup. Really regret purchasing this game, honestly haven't played it since the first week it was out, and neither have the other 15-20 people on my Steam friends who bought it (that I've noticed anyway).

@Sh1fty

Honestly, I would have bought the game... had they not backpedaled on their promise for free DLC. Oh, it's free for 2 weeks? Well, I'll tell you what. I'll play your game for a week as long as it's fun, then just not buy the game. How about that?

Honestly though, I found the game pretty fun, heavy with the special shotgun was ABSOLUTE RAGE. I just couldn't get over the lying, the low community pool, and the risk I'd be taking for a mediocre package that thinks it deserves $25 of my money, when this game clearly should have been released at indie price, say around $15 - $20. see Section 8: Prejudice for how to turn a flop into awesome.

@Pascual

If you ask me, any game that comes out that and the developers say they "still have a lot of work to do" it means it's not worth buying. Maybe NEXT time they'll release it how it was meant to be released, as an Arcade game.

I tried to like this game on PC for the Steam free weekend, but it just felt off. Like there were some cool pieces of gameplay that just didn't fit well together.

If the developer had kept their promise and made a true parkour game it would of been a lot more successful on all three platforms.

@bargaingamer

They never promised a parkour game.

@bargaingamer

It would have been more successful on all 3 platforms if the lag on the 360 version didn't make it unplayable.

What on earth happened during development that it took years to finally ship a clearly unfinished product they still have lots of work to do on? I mean, I wish them luck but WTF?

And that's nice it found success on PC, but what about the console players who bought it the basically unfixable version?

@Dick Socrates What's odd is that if you look at the SD forums, it's the PC players that still have a lot more complaints than the console players. Brink actually seems to have done better with the console crowd.

Why exactly would the console version be "unfixable?"

And BTW, for all its faults Brink still is fun as hell. I've got all my characters maxed out and I've got the plat, and it's my current go-to FPS.

@End User edit: Why is it "unfixable?" There have already been two patches to the console version.

@End User Brink is fun as hell but just because it's your "go to fps" doesn't mean it's good. An example being black ops is many other people's go to game.

@MystcLazrDragon No, it doesn't "mean it's good." It means *I think it's good.* It's what's known as an "opinion."

@End User No it's pc gamers complain more oh no I can't have battlefield 3 on steam oh forgot I wasn't on Xbox.com.

I really liked this game, despite its flaws, but it just doesn't seem to have much of a community. I went back to it after the free DLC, but was still having a hard time finding other people on the consoles. It's something I play in between other games, but with all the big games coming just around the corner, I really doubt I'll be going back to it much, if at all.

@saadskel Since the DLC, I've actually been able to find more games with lots of humans via the matchmaking, instead of having to use the PSN chat-room "lobby" the PS3 community came up with shortly after release.

Couldn't bother after reviews came in. I had my mind set on LA Noire after that.

I haven't fired up this game since a few days after launch on PC. I was so angry at how terribly unfinished the game was that I refused to play it again. I got the free DLC the other week so I might fire it back up just to see. Its paid for, after all so hopefully its better and I don't rage again :)

I played it a few hours during the Steam weekend. I didn't see what all the hate was about so I bought it and have been enjoying it. To each their own.

Was the PC version better? I got the PS3 version day 1 cause I was looking forward to it. But I was disappointed...not completely disappointed, but still. Then I saw the review Joystiq gave it (2/5) and G4 gave it (2/5). But then G4 reviewed the PC version and gave it a 4/5!!! What's up with that? Did they really put effort into one version and phone it in for the other two? That's slack!!!

@Dukk420 it was probably reviewed by 2 different people

@Dukk420

Splash Damage is a medium-sized PC developer. That being said the lead-version of Brink was the PC version.

I believe Brink was to suppose to be a PC-exclusive or at least not be in charge of any console development what-so-ever. However, Bethesda required that Splash Damage also develop a Xbox 360 and PS3 version of the game.

As you can see, this where the problems begun. Now the team was required to develop for all three platforms and as a effect split their resources by three instead of just focusing on the PC version.

In the end, the game turned out crap on all three platforms, the PC getting the less crap version.

Bethesda should have done what Splash Damage always done before, allow Splash Damage to do the PC-lead copy of the game and out source the ports to a experienced console developer. Splash Damage had no experience on console development before Brink.

I hear a lot of bad things about this game. For what I've seen I'd like to rent it, but I wouldn't buy it without playing something of it, first.

PC Gaming is dead! Long live PC Gaming!

I bought it on 360, while obviously rough it was still pretty fun with friends.
Just hope a sequel fixes the major issues and comes out in a more polished state.

I honestly love the concept of this game, and when playing it, I just KNEW there was a gem in there. The gameplay is definitely there for me...

But the launch really was just atrocious. Never before did my system have trouble running any game I wanted it too, but Brink just REFUSED for me to play. I literally couldn't play it without making the game look like ass, and even then, crashes were common for me. It left a bad taste in my mouth, but the worst thing about it all is that the time I was able to actually just play the game...was very fun. It was just that I was barely able to play ;__;

I didn't mind this game so much. It would have made for a better $20 title than a $60, for sure, but I do applaud Splash Damage for at least maintaining the user base they already have and doing their best to ensure that the game is updated with new features regularly. They could have simply abandoned the early-adopters, but they chose to stick it out instead. You have to give them credit for that.

Honestly, the game wasn't all that bad. Yes, it had some balancing issues, the graphics were crap, and parkour was not particularly well implemented, but under the rough exterior there is definitely a good game in Brink- one with good controls, nice character customization, and brilliant art style.

Let's hope that if there's a Brink 2, its given the chance it deserves to thrive.

Yeah, real damned successful. I bought Brink and myself, along with anyone else that has my graphics card cannot play Brink to this day. That was a waste of $50...

@(Unverified)

and that would be?

@xiLeShadow ATI Radeon HD5470

The major thing that affected this game on the ps3 is that they released it during the outage.

Also Justin's review singlehandedly killed the game too (j/p)...he was amazingly spot on with his review for this one. Bad choke points!

@kentuckyfried

And also the fact that the much-touted parkour didn't seem to help the game's overall flow that much. That was a huge disappointment.

The problem still is the balancing of the bots ai and general inability to find anyone to play with on ps3. Put a lobby in and the first problem wouldn't be as big a problem.

I don't know why this game would have any popularity, considering that Team Fortress 2 went free recently. There are so many other, better polished options out there....

I rented it from rebox for 2 hours and was certain that I didn't want anything to do with it. The parkour portion was useful only to stop yourself from clipping on the level.

Brink was probably the most disappointing game I've played in a few years.
It looked a lot better in those old videos where they had story elements in the match itself instead of cutscenes.

Wow I must admit I have been quite the critic of the game but i respect them admitting there faults and promising us long term support.

I gave brink a shot, thought it was a mess. The whole parkour thing was just the same repetitive animation, and the game it's self was bland as well as the boring level design. There really wasn't much to this game that I saw, but I'm willing to give it another shot if they patch it up, do some serious renovation, and do another free weekend.

I really wanted to like this game, but I just couldn't. The parkour seemed to be nonexistent, even as a light body, the AI is absolutely awful, the "single player" was just multiplayer with the aforementioned afwul bots, I spent as much time dead and waiting for a medic/respawn as I did playing the game (that could just be my lack of skill though), and some of the missions seemed incredibly hard to do with all the choke points. It came in the Quakecon pack I bought on Steam, and I really don't think I got $25 of enjoyment out of it yet. These are my opinions, of course.

My number one biggest complaint didn't really have anything to do with balancing or gameplay issues, but more with presentation. During the free weekend i was really compelled to buy it but after playing it for an hour, i just couldn't wrap my mind around what it was they were trying to do in regards to the campaign.

I know this doesn't really apply to everyone, but because of the campaign's lack of focus, it really drove me to not purchase it. Considering that the intro movie sets you up perfectly for a great game, it just didn't play out that way. For me it all felt disjointed. Hopefully, if they release a sequel, focus will be their main priority for the single player.

Game was definitely designed as an online shooter in mind.

Brink

Brink dev says launch was rough, game found success on PC

Reader Comments (40)

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 10:30AM Pascual said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 11:57AM Dizazter said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 12:37PM Sh1fty said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 2:20PM ShivanSwordsman said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 5:54PM SirUrza said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 10:30AM Integral said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 10:30AM bargaingamer said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 3:36PM Tephlon said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 5:55PM SirUrza said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 10:33AM Dick Socrates said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 11:06AM End User said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 11:06AM End User said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 11:15AM MystcLazrDragon said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 12:32PM End User said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 1:00PM byaboy said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 10:41AM saadskel said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 11:08AM End User said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 10:43AM Shadowbender said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 10:44AM Tyran said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 10:46AM HooDiergod said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 10:48AM Dukk420 said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 11:12AM 8bitartist said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 12:56PM xiLeShadow said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 11:27AM SpecBlank said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 11:36AM Assmar said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 11:37AM Jawmuncher said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 11:58AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 12:02PM MW49350 said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 12:57PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 1:14PM xiLeShadow said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 5:55PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 1:30PM kentuckyfried said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 1:30PM kentuckyfried said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 1:36PM Bailers77 said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 1:37PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 1:45PM natheist said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 1:46PM Azev said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 3:12PM aea0a095 said

Posted: Aug 15th 2011 3:43PM Cave Johnson said

Posted: Aug 16th 2011 12:13AM FlameChucks76 said

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