Despite some complaints about refresh rates and some lingering bugs, Hellraiser 2’s community seems to be much happier with the game since its big patch was released last week. Players have been heaping praise on the game’s change of direction, and much of that praise has gone to former Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt, but the studio wants to make it clear that the patch was a collaborative effort by the entire team.
If you’re not aware, late last month, Pilestedt decided to give up his CEO duties at the studio and remain as chief creative officer – a position designed to allow him to spend more time focusing on helping oversee game development, rather than business matters. While it’s worked out well so far – restoring enough goodwill that players recently chose to heed Arrowhead’s insistence and save some poor Super Earth kids, Pilestedt’s work isn’t the only factor in the turnaround.
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In response to some of the praise the patch has received, Pilestedt issued a response via Twitter. “I’ve seen a lot of people giving me a lot of credit for this patch, as if I’m the only one responsible,” he wrote. “I want to be clear that this patch was a team effort. Without their hard work, design sensibility, diligence, and passion, none of this would have been possible.”
Meanwhile, over on the game’s Discord server, Arrowhead senior game designer Alexus Kravchenko, who has previously received a lot of criticism for making unwelcome tweaks to weapons like the R-36 Eruptor, also posted a message to players.
“It’s fun to be the villain of the month, but this witch hunt has reached a level that even I’m uncomfortable with, so I want to make a few things clear,” he wrote. “No, our CCO is not micromanaging us. [Pilestedt]. The C-level executives have more important things to do.” Kravchenko said he was not fired and was “never responsible for game balance decisions”, continuing: “I’m just a game designer, this has always been a team effort. Our balance philosophy remains the same, we just need more time to digest the results!”
He added: “However, I will take the blame for the Eruptor incident. I shouldn’t have rushed to Discord in the first place. I feel that the new blog post format can better express our views, so I will avoid public discussion to avoid saying stupid things again.”
So don’t put all the credit or blame on one person for the work of an entire team, including the small patch Arrowhead released today that corrects a number of bugs and crashes – the most notable of which is the final tweak that should finally make the spear, which was previously plagued by aiming issues, 100% usable again.
