In the Olympics, the Jamaican bobsledding team is famed for beating out countries who had a number of advantages over the Jamaican team — like winter coats and bobsledding tracks for training. Sure, the Jamaican team didn’t come in first, but the fact they were competitive in the first place was amazing.
A4 Games, the developers behind Metro: Last Light, are kind of like that Jamaican bobsledding team. In a recent article at Games Industry, former THQ executive Jason Rubin described the supposed ridiculous working conditions under which A4 Games developed Metro: Last Light.
It’s difficult not to look at the game with awe when you consider that it had “10 per cent of the budget of its biggest competitors,” that A4 Games had to sneak dev kits through Ukrainian customs, or that they had to bribe people to try to get decent office chairs. To top all that off, they also had to deal with constant power outages, according to Rubin.
“Power outages are the norm for 4A,” Rubin explained. “All developers have deadlines, but I know of few that had to bring in construction generators to be able to work the weekend before final submission because an extra day meant missing shelf dates by weeks. Montreal is cold, but when it gets cold in Kiev it’s different. That’s because the government provides all of the heating through a central coal burning facility that pipes hot water to homes and offices. Unfortunately, it breaks down reliably a few times a year for a week at a time.”
Nevermind the difficulties in continuing to work on the game, this type of setback also meant having to deal with keeping warm.
Despite all of this, Metro: Last Light is a game worth playing — making A4 Games, in a way, much like the Jamaican Bobsledding team. Lots of disadvantages, and sure, Metro: Last Light isn’t the absolute best shooter out there. But it’s good, and it’s kind of crazy that it was able to get made in the first place.
Jason Rubin: Metro: Last Light is the “triumph of an underdog” [Games Industry]
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5 responses to “Former THQ Pres: Metro Makers The ‘Jamaican Bobsledders’ Of Developers”
I read this earlier today elsewhere and it immediately made me want to buy the game as a show of support…
Will still be holding off though, supposedly for a PS4 version of the game, which also might include the original game also, or so that’s how the rumour goes…
(Sings) Know people say, u know u can’t believe,
Jamaica, we have a bobsled team…
(sings) Insane in the Ukraine..
This explains why metro games are depressing to play. Imagine what the game would have been like if the devs had to do all there work in a water drain?? Then every week one of they team just disappeared??
Everone says Metro is depressing, maybe Metro is less depressing over there.