A new report has emerged which may shed some light on why ill-fated third-person shooter MindsEye flopped so disastrously when it launched earlier this year, and the reasons are probably going to sound pretty familiar to you.
In an article for the BBC, reporter Tom Richardson spoke to former staff who worked for developer Build a Rocket Boy (which underwent a hefty round of layoffs earlier this year following MindsEye‘s release).
An ex-developer known as “Jamie” (which isn’t their real name) told Richardson that Everywhere, the user-generated content sandbox which was BARB’s initial focus, was “quite special”, but that once the studio’s focus shifted to MindsEye, boss Leslie Benzies “never decided what game he wanted to make”.
Jamie says there was “no coherent direction” on MindsEye‘s development, and that Benzies would routinely request huge changes to features or missions in the game. Jamie says the team referred to these bug and feature requests as “Leslies”, and that they “had to be taken care of” immediately.
Additionally, former staff at Build a Rocket Boy allege that MindsEye was developed under crunch conditions, with staff routinely working additional unpaid overtime hours during the week in order to finish the game.
Former employee Margherita Peloso, known as Marg, says they attempted to raise concerns regarding the state of MindsEye, but that they were “laughed at” by management. Marg says staff felt they were “commanded to give a lot to the company without too much in return”.
According to Richardson, ex-Build a Rocket Boy workers are “pessimistic” about whether MindsEye can be turned around, despite assurances from BARB that this is the studio’s intention.
If you need a reminder, MindsEye launched earlier this year to a decidedly negative reception from both players and critics alike (ourselves very much included).
The game’s launch resulted in players requesting refunds over what they perceived to be unacceptable bugs and performance issues, as well as a sponsorship for streamer CohhCarnage being pulled at the last minute as reports of MindsEye‘s many problems poured in.
MindsEye‘s launch was so bad, in fact, that it appears to have prompted publisher IO Interactive to reconsider its entire relationship with third-party publishing, although that didn’t stop UKIE boss Nick Poole from seemingly citing the game as an example of the strength of the Scottish gaming industry.
I’m not entirely sure why you’d want to, but if you’re so inclined, you can check out MindsEye right now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
