Favourite Game Development Stories?

[Moonface]

I was just in the car with @ShiraNoMai driving home from getting breakfast and I brought up Burnout 3 because the subject of tankers exploding came up and that game has tankers that can explode in it. Anyway, while talking about the game to her I recalled and shared the fact that the takedown feature in the game was added late in development and only one track (Downtown) was actually designed with the takedown feature in mind. Every other track was designed before the takedown feature was thought of and put into the game, which is why they feel more like the style of track the two games before it had whereas the Downtown track is glaringly different. I forget where and when I learned that but I've always liked knowing that little fact.

So what game development stories do you really like or just found interesting to learn about?

[Maniakkid25]

How did I miss this thread?

Anyway, my favorite game development story is actually Alan Wake. See, originally, the game was developed as an open-world exploration a la Grand Theft Auto, but then the devs actually wrote out the story. As the game's story developed, they suddenly realized that the game they were developing clashed with that story, as it was paced as a more traditional linear tale. In essence, they realized they were developing the wrong game, and had to pivot mid-development. The problem? They were already behind in development time and budget. So they had to basically beg MICROSOFT (who originally published the game) for more time and money because of this, and actually got it.

What Happened actually has a great exposé on the game's development cycle, and it's crazy to think that the sleeper hit horror-esque game was actually almost a big, sprawling sandbox game. The dev team managed to repurpose what they had VERY well, all things considered.