Ubisoft is an enormous firm, however the games it produces are the visions of particular person individuals – that’s the takeaway in Playing Hard, an impartial documentary in regards to the making of sword-based brawler For Honor. The movie, which Ubisoft didn’t produce, is now available to watch on Netflix.
Playing Hard was directed by Jean-Simon Chartier, a documentary filmmaker primarily based close to Ubisoft Montreal. As For Honor ramped up manufacturing, Chartier took an interest within the individuals making the game, and he approached a number of of the game’s builders for interviews and behind-the-scenes appears at the way it got here collectively.
The movie is a stark have a look at the excessive prices of triple-A game improvement. For Honor’s artistic director, Jason VandenBerghe progressively turns into disillusioned because the game moved past his unique imaginative and prescient and out of his arms. Meanwhile, producer Stéphane Cardin burns out and leaves the workforce to endure remedy simply months earlier than For Honor ships. Luc Duchaine, For Honor’s publicist, sees his well being decline as he travels the world to assist drum up curiosity within the game.
Playing Hard solely covers For Honor’s pre-release improvement, and due to this fact doesn’t present a window into the workforce’s intensive work on their game after launch – its cratering player count and the next efforts to bring them back.
But it’s nonetheless a movingly tragic and private story about how game improvement is hard work, taking its toll within the type of psychological and bodily sickness, lengthy hours, and typically crushing disappointment.
More honor: The best samurai games on PC
Chartier says Ubisoft ultimately gave his workforce carte-blanche to movie contained in the For Honor improvement studio, and that the corporate didn’t get remaining lower on the movie. It’s effectively well worth the watch as a compelling peek into the games business’s sausage manufacturing unit.
Source