Advice to management, send for the
Carpathia and ask them to head to your
location at full steam because Build a
Rocket Boy will be the British video
games
Titanic. It would appear the Minds Eye
situation just got a little bit more
complicated. So, a few weeks ago, myself
along with many of the creators were
invited to various live streamed events
of Minds Eye gameplay. And whilst the
overall game does look interesting, a
lot of us were quite concerned with the
amount of bugs, simplistic gameplay,
lack of NPCs, game mechanics, and the
way the actual presentation itself was
run, quickly glossing over issues and
rushing on to the next topic. There were
some positives, but I covered that in a
different video. The overall sentiment
from the various creators that have seen
the gameplay is that the game does not
look ready for release. And if it is, it
definitely doesn't look like how we
expected it to look. And the mechanics
scream of almost being like an Ubisoft
game. Now, a little side note, the build
of the game in this live stream event
was from the day before the stream. So,
I have seen a lot of people suggesting
that we saw an old build. Well,
according to Builder Rocket Boy, it was
a recent build, which is even more
concerning. Now, originally, we were
supposed to receive this exclusive
gameplay footage that you're seeing
right now, the day after the stream, but
it was delayed by a few days. Now, this
footage isn't the stuff that we saw in
the stream. It's entirely different
parts of the game, and some of it is
stuff that they've already leaked over
the past month or two. So, it's left a
few creators wondering if they actually
fix the stuff we saw. Now, none of us
are condemning the game. When it comes
out, I'll play it. And if it's great,
they have somehow managed to do what
would seem impossible and fix everything
alongside populating the whole world
with NPCs and fixing the entire game
mechanics. If they somehow managed to do
that, of course, I'll applaud them. But
the only way that I can see them getting
that done is by implementing some
serious crunch. However, some people
aren't applauding Build a Rocket Boy,
their current and former employees. Now,
Glass Door is a website that lets you
see reviews of employers so you can
decide if you want to join a business.
And Builder Rocket Boy's employees have
a lot to say. Now, just a little caveat
for this section of the video. Some of
these people are ex employees and
they're more inclined to leave negative
reviews. So, we don't know the nature of
the review, if they were fired, if they
left. So, take all of this with a pinch
of salt, but a fair portion of these
reviews are from current employees. The
first review is pretty telling. Don't
join. If you're a current employee,
leave whenever you can. The next review
is titled Ego Mania and Sadness, and
this actually talks about the gameplay
mechanics. Too much focus on
micromanagement of art and not enough
development of game mechanics. Tiny
visual details would be poured over,
done, redone, meddled and tinkled with
over and over and over. Whilst the
gameplay mechanics rotted on the shelf
for so long, the endless fiddling while
Rome burned reality actually caused a
lot of the best people to leave the
studio. Far too much good work was
needlessly destroyed. And this reflects
some of the sentiment that we had when
we were actually watching the live
stream event. The art direction did look
really good. The game looked pretty and
things like the explosions and even some
of the cutscenes, they do look
absolutely incredible, but the gameplay
mechanics look like it's straight out of
Fortnite. The really bizarre running
looks like an off-the-shelf system that
was kind of either bought or just
implemented relatively easily.
Considering that Builder Rocket Boy
managed to raise $200 million worth of
investment, well, that value doesn't
feel like it's coming from the game.
Now, in one of the reviews, there's also
some advice to the management. There's
nothing much left to do but sit tight
and wait for the inevitable. It feels
like the die has already been cast now.
If you had left talent you hired alone
to do their jobs and shown just a tiny
amount of trust and care for their
well-being, you'd have had the game
shipped years ago and at a better
quality level by a very loyal team.
Instead, you chose to micromanage the
project to oblivion and silence valid
criticisms. Please reflect on this fact
if or when the project fails. It will
not be the staff's fault. Another review
from a current employee is titled Where
Fears Your Every Move. This review
directly addresses Leslie Benzes. The
CEO made one of the biggest revenue
generators of all time in 2013. It's
safe to say that games have moved on
since. However, the methodology of I am
always right and you will cater for that
audience of one has not. The CEO simply
does not process anyone's view other
than his own and frantic lastminute
feedback panic from investors. They then
go on to talk about the burnout and how
overtime just isn't a thing and it just
keeps going and going and going. Look,
it is to be expected that some people
won't like their workplace, but to have
the majority of the reviews going into
specific detail about how Build a Rocket
Boy is run is probably a bit more than a
coincidence. When Leslie departed
Rockstar, he was actually locked out of
the business, forced out by the company.
Now, whilst there's always more to every
story, and none of us can even pretend
to know the full picture, there seems to
be a pattern of behavior echoed by these
employees. So, it does appear that
things aren't going great over at
Builder Rocket Boy, and that would
explain what many of us creators saw in
those live stream events. Now, there are
some other concerns I have. Of course,
all the gameplay you've seen throughout
this video is the stuff they gave us to
show you guys as marketing material. But
even in this footage, there's a couple
of bugs and glitches, and this is all
stuff that they've met gone through in
order to release to the public. In fact,
this is the footage that they had to
delay the release of to make sure it was
perfect. and it still isn't. Now,
another cause for concern is supposedly
everyone gets the same release at the
same time. So, there is no early access
for this game. So, essentially, there
won't be an opportunity for journalists
or creators or YouTubers or or whatever
sort of reach you have. There's no
option for you to play this game and
create a review to release on launch
day. they are releasing the game for
everyone to play at exactly the same
time, which is a big red flag because I
don't think I'm aware of any games
developer that's done that previously,
unless I'm greatly mistaken. It's a bit
of a weird thing to do in my opinion.
It's kind of like they don't want bad
reviews coming out on release day. Now,
with the game being so close to release,
and when I say so close to release, we
are now only 2 weeks away from launch
day. In fact, we're exactly two weeks
away from launch day. In terms of
getting discs printed, like the game
printed on discs and to go out into
retail stores, that would have been done
a couple of weeks ago. That usually
happens anywhere between 3 weeks to a
month in advance. Maybe it can get
pushed through a couple of days before.
You got to think, they have to get the
game over to the printers. It has to be
tested. Like the actual final print has
to be tested. It then needs to be
shipped from manufacturers to stores and
all contracts and everything with stores
have to be signed and all marketing
material has to be given to the stores
for like display stands and stuff like
that. We are cutting it seriously fine.
In fact, when we saw the preview, it's
probably around that sort of point that
they would have had to start sending the
discs to be printed. Now, of course,
they could still be working on patches
that get released on day one, but it
looks like they're going to have to be
patching a lot of stuff. I just can't
see a scenario where this doesn't come
out with a similar sort of release as
Cyberpunk 2077 because well, we know how
that went. Now, if any former Builder
Rocket Boy employees would be happy to
jump on a call and do a little
interview, I'm more than happy to keep
you anonymous, alter your voice,
whatever it might be, but I'm keen to
get more of the story and more of the
context. When Minds Eye releases, I'll
give it a go. But I'm not just basing my
opinion on news reels that I've seen
written by Gaming Bible, for example.
I've seen the game play myself and it
left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.
And to be honest, it led me to a lot of
questions of I wonder what's happening
inside Builder Rocket Boy. And Glass
Door has answered a lot of those
questions. There's every possibility
that this game is absolutely incredible.
And I will give it the time of day when
it's released. But until then, I can
only base my thoughts, opinions, and
feelings off what I've seen so far. And
what I've seen so far isn't inspiring
confidence. As this story evolves, I'll
keep you all updated. If you did enjoy
today's video, please make sure to like
and subscribe and I'll see you all in
the next one.
Not too old to adjust. Old dog, new
tricks. Remember I was just a pup dirty
in my cup. In my cup, clean soul, good
karma is a must. Still my shooter in the
cut. I was stuck inside a rut. In a rut.
Played the game, made bank, move G.
Anything to get a buck. You won't find
me in the club. In the club. I'm in the
lab.