Video game developments go through their ups and downs and do not always end up obtaining the result that their creators would have originally wanted. One of the most striking recent cases we have with The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, which has received so many sticks and so many negative reviews that, to this day, it is the worst rated video game of all 2023.
At the time of writing these lines, its average score on Metacritic is 36 points in its version for PS5 and Xbox Serties and 41 points in its version for PC. What’s more, of all the titles that have been released in these almost six months, it is the only one that has a suspense, something that has probably been quite a disappointment for those responsible.
Even so, these controversial developments can also serve as a lesson and to live other experiences. This has been reflected by Dannie Carlone, an environment artist at Sony Santa Monica who has worked on jewels such as God of War Rangarök and other great games such as Rise of the Tomb Raider or its sequel Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
But not all the games in which he has participated have received notes, as he himself has pointed out on his Twitter account, indicating that he was part of the Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric team on Wii U, which obtained an average score of 32 points. That does not mean that, beyond the score, he himself feels proud to have been part of its development.
Games are hard to do. Regardless of the score, each project has positive aspects and lessons to be learned. I’m showing my lowest scored game because I’m proud of the time I spent working with some of my favorite people in the industry.
Some things are out of the reach of your hands. Be kind to one another.
This striking message has not gone unnoticed at all. That’s where she has come into the picture Ashley Rochelle, the head stage artist on Bonus XP and formerly a part of Retro Studios, as she wanted to follow a similar example to Dannie Carlone’s. In this way, she has published this other message on her Twitter account:
YOU! VIDEOGAME DEVELOPER!
Quote this message with your lowest scoring game and what you loved about it. Add a selfie as well if you want.
Hehe, yeah, technically I worked on this one. Working on the Aliens franchise was a lot of fun (despite how it all ended)
That led Rochelle to post an image showing an average score of 43 on Aliens: Colonial Marines, but herself has recognized that it was a great experiencealthough the game ended up taking a suspense, so he doesn’t regret anything either.
Call for developers to do the same
The point is that his message has not fallen on deaf ears and countless developers from all kinds of companies They have listened to what she asked. In this way, quite a few of them have posted messages on their respective Twitter accounts to reflect the lessons they have learned in the past or how proud they are of the games in which they have deposited their bit.
And it is that the result can be better or worse, but at least all of them feel very satisfied to have been able to dedicate themselves to something that they are passionate about and even It doesn’t seem like they regret it at all.. Even so, some have pointed out that their projects have not even received any ratings, implying that not a single person has reviewed them.
So you can see it better in the following publications they have made:
My team had a 12-month, $120,000 contract to develop this sequel to Overdose. It would have scored decently if the distributor hadn’t cut two months out of 12, releasing the alpha version because it ran out of money.
It was my first title released when I was 19 years old. It was a surreal feeling at the time and I really enjoyed working with such great people (I even met the legend @DBakaba at that time). I wasn’t a designer yet, but I got valuable first-hand experience as a 3D artist and in QA.
- Friends: The One With All the Trivia: 50 average score
A lot of things I worked on weren’t parsed, so this is the lowest I’ve found. My background with video meant that I was able to work on that part of the project, which can sometimes be a nice break from programming.
- Anthem: 59 average score
I learned a lot on this project. We knew it wasn’t ready as this game literally took 15 months to create. Which is unheard of for such a big game. Anthem 2 would have been great!
This one had a lot of potential. Such a unique twist on battle royale and the team was top notch. When I came to this project I had less than three months to finish all the trailers and materials. And this was during the first three months of Covid. A valuable lesson…
- Xiaolin Showdown: 40 average score
My lowest score, and also one of my first. It was a legitimately fun game, it just had a couple of serious issues that sank it. Excellent learning experience.
Out of all the games I’ve been in that have ever been released, Sword of the Necromancer is my lowest rated game.
I appreciated that this game was the first one that allowed me to fulfill my dream of doing some art for a video game. In this case, I designed a couple of creatures to be common enemies.
- Tom Clancy’s Elite Squad: 46 average score
I learned a lot about the rules of the art and user interfaces. It was also great to see it unveiled at E3 2019.
It was great to have complete freedom in designing the main characters, especially being a fan of the original games. I also had a lot of fun animating the scenes. It helped me improve in modeling and animation.
This is funny because it scores low because the analysts didn’t get it. I’ve spent hundreds of hours doing QA on Rain World and it’s the most beautiful and haunting nightmare I’ve ever played.
Hearing my favorite streamer say that I was crap hurt lol. The game looks beautiful. It also doesn’t have microtransactions, which is a rarity nowadays. It has apparently gotten better since launch!
- The Muppets: Movie Adventures: 48 average score
I got to work on a Muppet game, we were a small team (just two programmers!) and almost no budget. Still, we had a lot of fun developing it, with zero crunch and I can die in peace knowing that I’m responsible for the game that features Peggy as Xena and Animal as Clint Eastwood.
- The Sun at Night: 59 average score
The story was great, the updates were great, exploring was super fun. And some of our bosses were crazy.
- Far Cry 5: Lost on Mars: 57 average score
I worked on this with the Ubisoft Shanghai team on the other side of the world before there was remote work and video calls. I met some great people who fueled this little miracle and it was a blast to write.
I loved this fantasy, the settings, all the DLC and working with a very limited engine and still managing to do something that was great.
Technically it would be Terminator Salvation, but I contributed so little that I don’t feel like it deserves credit, so my lowest rated game would be Battlefront II, which is the game I’m most proud of.
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