Rockstar has been in the spotlight lately because of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition, which didn’t shed much light on the publisher. Nor does it shed any light on the publisher that Bully, the action-adventure game centered on the misfortunes of school, released in 2006, hasn’t received a sequel yet. Bully 2, which was previously canceled or discontinued according to unofficial information, has been said to have been redeveloped, but a recent report has shed light on the reasons behind The Vomit Fate for Part Two and hurt our hearts with many of the great ideas they tried to implement in it.
a Media game An article has been published focusing on issues facing Bully 2 and the development team, Rockstar New England (Bully: Scolarship Edition). Reporter Blake Hester interviewed five former studio employees, complemented by an individual working in a New York City branch office, who requested anonymity because they were still afraid of Rockstar. One of the main reasons is that Rockstar North, which supplies GTAs, has been a real rock star among publishers’ development studios, so despite the ambitions of Rockstar New England, it’s called Mad Doc Software (thanks to them also the Empire Earth series). ), North, who owns the hen that lays the golden egg, gets more game making resources. Game Informer noted in the article that while The Bully was a critical and financial success, Take-Two sold more than 1.5 million copies in 2008, according to a major publisher, but this year GTA IV 8 has produced 5 million copies per month. from the first show. So there was no doubt about which brand deserved special attention.
Mad Doc was an independent studio until 2008, which was acquired by Takestar Two this year through Rockstar Games and then renamed Rockstar New England. This came after they were tasked with releasing Bully: Scolarship Edition, a remake of the PlayStation 2 exclusive base game for Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and PC. Former employees of Mad Doc at the time welcomed joining Rockstar, saying that belonging to such a large brand is a big deal, according to former employees who told Game Informer. Yes, but more power comes with more responsibility, and in this case it meant the end of the old workplace culture, which was followed by hard overtime, for which Rockstar Games is famous. Jeronimo Parreira, then Vice President of Rockstar, said on his first visit to the studio that they are not working All On weekends, and here the focus was on “everything”, that is, “busy Saturdays and Sundays”, when the shoot buddies were great because of deadlines.
As a New England rock star, Mad Doc has not only worked on the Bully port/revamped version but has also worked on several other projects, including the development of two GTA IV add-ons and Red Dead Redemption. They also had the opportunity to do Bully 2, which experts interviewed by Game Informer said was a great opportunity for them to prove it. But the GTA series proved very viable, so Rockstar Games brought it back from the previous pace, released fewer new games through the sieve, and turned into one or two new titles a year, with the exception of Portings, and the victory of GTA V over this. This also led the publisher to stop putting out something new every year. Red Dead Redemption 2 was also released just eight years after the first episode, five years after GTA V. Rockstar (see, for example, the revolutionary facial expressions of Detective L.A. Noire) was a high-profile, special, expensive, meticulously crafted gamer, His works have decreased in number. Former employees of Rockstar New England say Bully 2 was also made in that spirit, so it could have been elevated to the level of the GTA and Red Dead series.
Previous developers said that Bully 2 would have focused more heavily on characters, defined by complex gameplay mechanics reminiscent of GTAs and Red Deads, and significantly expanded the world of the first part. Compared to Bully, the playing field in Part Two was at least three times that of GTA: Vice City, although it was designed to be more complex. One participant, for example, said that all the buildings could have been designed in detail to be accessible, so what we saw was walkable. Moreover, it was also important for the non-playable characters to remember all the actions of the protagonist, Jimmy, so nothing went without consequences. It is said that some game elements from this system were also saved in Red Dead Redemption 2: Although when we mark the date of a city or shop, people remember it, especially the authorities, so we can’t easily go back, for example, a shopkeeper who doesn’t serve from If we smash your business.
In Bully 2, the concept is that existing relationships open up new and new possibilities, while the gates are closed due to bad deeds. In addition, it was possible to prepare the environment in amazing detail: in a realistic way, the grass was growing over time, which could have been cut. But there would also have been a new kind of cracking system in the Bully sequel, which would also have realistically smashed one bottle if we cut something in it. There was talk of a detailed jump-holding mechanism included in Bully 2, meaning Jimmy could climb not only fences or heights, but also trees and roofs, and even sneak out of his own window. Those, of course, could have played a role in the escapes.
Of course, the word “it was possible” was mentioned many times in the paragraphs above because the New England developers could no longer complete it, despite working and experimenting with game elements captured from GTAs. We don’t know the exact numbers, but the Game Informer article estimates that roughly 50 to 70 people could have worked on Bully 2, so nearly the entire studio worked on it.
Four developers, by the way, confirmed that Bully 2 was in a playable state, which means Jimmy can run around the world, interact with NPCs that live their lives arithmetic, and even run crazy (side) missions involving go-karting , but it was also possible to take part in a mission in which the hero runs in his underpants. There was roughly 6-8 hours of content in this version of the game, so developers interviewed by Game Informer said it would take about 2-3 years for Bully 2 to be produced. But that’s when Rockstar came along and started redeploying the professionals to other, more important projects. According to sources in the newspaper, many of them can no longer return to the school-like action game.
It’s a bitter irony, but the New England pros were able to work together on Max Payne 3 with Rockstar Vancouver, developers of the original PS2 Bully. However, this meant constant overtime, and there were no downtimes in the field, which meant that many of Rockstar’s projects were heavily motivated by New England professionals who squeezed in from 12 to 16 hours a day, for example. One respondent considered it practically impossible for them to work on a contract, while they were more excited about their love project, Bully 2. But overtime was also popular within the New England division, where developers felt they needed to continue to prove to Rockstar that they were committed. of the publisher’s projects and that they would be at special risk in some respects if they tried to resign.
Rockstar New England underwent a major downsizing in June 2009, laying off 10% of the studio’s staff, affecting both the Quality Assurance team and the arts department. According to a report from Game Informer, although Rockstar has promised to help people who have become unemployed find new jobs, this is not the case, and they have not even been rewarded for their last jobs. The exact reasons for the layoffs are also unknown, at least not for the employees who have been laid off.
Bully 2 has recently received unofficial information that it has been redeveloped. It is true that Game Informer could not confirm this in its current article, although one expert interviewed said that there was a working version of the game even a few years ago. Is it worth taking this out? According to the report’s heroes, by all means, because things are starting to come true in him that we can’t really see in today’s games.
