The return of "Unmanned Deep Space": silence and disappearance of 700 days Love play Network 07-2909 Suzhou 35

God knows how much Sean Sean Murray is resistant to interviews. In normal life, he is a mean-mouthed teaser, but once he faces a reporter, he immediately looks less at ease.

As the leader of Hello Games, he once had to deal with the media frequently, drumming and shouting for "no one in deep space". In order to meet the expectations of others, he even exaggerated and made promises that he knew could not be fulfilled. And now his resistance to the media is more of a lingering fear.

If he could, he would really like to hire a publicist to face the disturbing microphones, recorders, cameras and camera lenses for him-keyboards and monitor screens are the hardware that makes him feel at ease, in essence, he thinks he's just a programmer with two brushes.

Sean Murray in a plaid shirt and jeans, a standard programmer's wardrobe

However, for an independent studio like Hello Games, it seems too extravagant and unnecessary to recruit a publicist. In this handful of teams, everyone is likely to have multiple roles: artists sometimes need to write game copywriters, and game testers act as customer service to handle feedback. At a time when there are too many things to do, the company has only one principle: everything related to game development comes first. This may also explain why Hello Games's website has not been updated since the release of Unmanned Deep Space NEXT, and the latest one is still the news of the rise of Atlas last year. The release of this more significant update has mobilized all the efforts of the company.

The unattended Hello Games official website

Be mired in a quagmire

Shortly after the launch of Unmanned Deep Space in 2016, Murray and his team were at the center of a whirlpool of public opinion. The game media gave up their pursuit of the game, mostly with scores above and below the passing line; there were a lot of requests for returns on Steam, and fewer than 100 users were active on the platform; and there was a lot of criticism on social networks, and players flocked to Sean Murray's account to scold him as a liar, thief and idiot, cursing him for being nailed to the humiliation pillar of game history forever. Some troublemakers even went near the company to secretly take pictures, spreading rumors that Hello Games had "rolled money away"-- such negative news is tantamount to adding fuel to the fire, and angry players choose to unconditionally believe that Hello Games is such an unscrupulous fraud gang that pats its buttocks and leaves after getting their hard-earned money.

The jubilation of the final version of the game is still alive, but soon after that, the whole team fell into the ice.

The "Unmanned Deep Space" section of the famous American social networking site Reddit was once the largest online community with the theme of "unmanned Deep Space" in the world, with 146000 players. After the word-of-mouth of the game hit rock bottom, the moderator directly closed this section because "it doesn't make any sense to open it. The page is full of disgust and complaints all day long." There are those who scold Sean Murray, those who scold the game production team, those who scold Sony. "

Only the employees who get along with Murray all the time know what the boss is really like. One of the company's software testers said of the company and its boss: "it's a great company. Sean is a good boss and the team is easy to work with." the only drawback of the company is that "the store is too far away from us and it's not convenient to buy milk." He complained about Sony. "I'll put it here: Sony ruined the game, and I hope ASA will find out."

In the eyes of employees, Murray is a very amiable boss.

By ASA, employees refer to the British Advertising Standards Authority. As the incident became so big that it even alarmed government agencies, the British Advertising Standards Authority began to investigate the suspected false advertising campaign of "Unmanned Deep Space". Although the final result is that the game advertisement does not violate the relevant regulations, no one cares that "the reputation is so bad that it is targeted by the government" is the result that players remember.

Under fame

In extraordinary times, it is not without reason for employees to be angry with Sony-if not for Sony's strong hype, which has pushed up unrealistic expectations, and if Sony had not repeatedly urged the game development process to rush into the game, "Unmanned Deep Space" would not have fallen into the field that is now spurned by thousands of people. Although Sony has brought great fame to the game, in the face of the ensuing disaster, every member of Hello Games would rather not have the original glory.

The evil words on the Internet are nothing, and some extreme players even send death threats to the studio, threatening to plant bombs around the company. This forced the studio to keep in touch with the police station, and people were in a panic for a moment.

Many employees, including Gareth Bourn, the game's chief designer, have left, unable to accept the huge gap and skepticism, which is another fatal blow to a team whose morale is already frozen.

Back at E3 in 2014, Unmanned Deep Space changed from an unknown independent game to the highlight of Sony's press conference, on an equal footing with many triple-A masterpieces and even better-the avant-garde concept of the game firmly attracted the attention of the media and players, and the exposed promotional videos were imaginative and admirable.

There are 180 billion planets automatically generated, each of which is unique and can never be played in a lifetime. Based on the creativity of romance and ideal, it fully resonates with the public. under the enchanted dream, the questioning voice of the cooler never occupies the mainstream.

When he started making the game, Murray didn't want to please the market, just to make his dream come true. "in fact, this idea has been lingering in my mind for a long time."

"when I was a child, I grew up on a ranch in the interior of Australia. Australia is sparsely populated and uninhabited in the interior. If you have any problems and ask for help, you will be told to stay where you are and light a bonfire at the exact time of the day in the hope that someone will follow the smoke to find you. "

This experience left an unforgettable impression on Murray for the rest of his life. when teenagers looked up at the starry sky and saw the stars all over the sky, the romantic imagination of cosmic exploration combined with the sense of loneliness they really felt, which formed the original inspiration of "No Man's Deep Space".

Little Murray when he was young

In 2011, Unmanned Deep Space began its life with a few lines of code on Murray's computer. Murray worked alone for a year, creating a technical demonstration that could be used to randomly generate planets and galaxies, and then three more core members joined him, expanding it into a game. It is this unique and heterogeneous idea that attracts Sony's attention. Sony decided to fund the project and provide a broad display stage for it. Before that, not only Hello Games, but any independent game studio dared to imagine that an independent game could get such a high salary.

Hello Games veteran quartet

However, Murray underestimated the difficulty of realizing his dream. In fact, before Unmanned Deep Space, Hello Games only made an obscure Mini Game. Independent studios do not have the same sufficient manpower as large game manufacturers, nor do they have a rigorous project schedule, and the development schedule has been unsatisfactory. However, the stage provided by Sony suddenly made the project famous, players, media, including Sony. It seemed that every day someone would come to ask about the game release day, and Murray felt that it was hard to ride a tiger.

From 2011 to 2016, the average size of a game development team is 6 people, and it usually takes at least 60 people to develop games of this size. Coupled with the lack of experience in game development, the development process is often in a chaotic exploratory stage. Murray really has no idea that the game can be "completely done", but no one in the outside world wants to see the repeated postponement of the game. The employees have been tense for too long and need to be accountable to them. Murray must make the game available as soon as possible, even if it is still a long way from his original promise.

Manpower has become a constraint in game development.

Silence is not golden.

Players hate being cheated. Once the promise turned into a beautiful lie, hurt not only the wallet, but also the heart that was once excited by expectation. In addition to the players who can't contain their anger and criticize, more people want the authorities to come forward and give an explanation.

However, with no explanation, no apology and no statement, Sean Murray, besieged by bad reviews, chose to remain silent. He does not understand the market, let alone public relations, he has never experienced such a situation in his life, overnight, he has changed from the creator of a widely anticipated game to a public enemy, which makes him at a loss.

Official silence is seen by players as a form of neglect and contempt. "I've made your money anyway, so you can do whatever you want." The player was further infuriated by his own imagination, and his anger became more and more intense, and the fire did not subside for three months.

Others say that in those crazy and noisy days, Sean Murray did not say a word. Two months after the game was released, a very brief message was posted on Hello Games's official Twitter: "Unmanned Deep Space is a mistake." Although the tweet was quickly deleted and officials said it was someone who stole the password and pretended to be official, many people suspected that Sean Murray did it. Of course, we will never know the truth except that Murray is willing to open up one day.

Time is a good medicine, and as long as it is long enough, it will certainly extinguish the great anger that once ignited. The game circle continued to bustle, new games emerged one after another, and players were quickly attracted by other interesting games. "Unmanned Deep Space" was thrown aside, and Murray disappeared from public view. Everyone firmly believes that "Unmanned Deep Space" is over, and Hello Games is finished.

Cannot bear to

When the uproar finally died down, Murray felt some reality. The nightmare I once experienced was so unreal that time seemed to lose its meaning: when did I become the focus of the limelight, and when did I get sprayed into a sieve?

In the two years since then, Murray has not been interviewed by any media. On the one hand, he really doesn't know how to face the media before making tangible results; on the other hand, he has suffered from the media-or rather, for lying in front of the media. Some media have seriously collected every promise he said publicly and compared it with the actual content of the game: there is no multiplayer online system, there is no space war between large space fleets and camps, and there is still no complex production workshop. Whether it's to keep the propaganda consistent or to satisfy the eager eyes of the interviewer, lying is unforgivable, and it's hard to excuse yourself for any reason. If he had known this, he would rather face all interviews with "no comment".

Murray paid the price for his mistake

The storm also taught Murray the power of the Internet: "the Internet is really good at revealing a person's shortcomings. if someone does something wrong, they can know it all right away."

The past is too bad for Murray to look back on the darkest moment in 2016: "those days were so bad that I don't want to make any comments. Online mobs can really ruin a person's life."

"I remember someone sending me a threatening letter on the grounds that in the promotional video at that time, when people passed by, there were butterflies flying by, but there was no such thing in the actual game. I was thinking: although you pursue beautiful butterflies, by the time you write this letter to me, you have become a villain. "

When the calf is stolen, the farmer mends the stall

In order to dream when they were young, for the sake of the game career that they love, and for the sake of responsibility, Murray and the studio did not choose to give up, but decided to withstand the pressure and redouble their efforts to continue to improve "Unmanned Deep Space". Give priority to meet the needs of players who have not given up, and give back to them in this way.

"looking back on my previous life, I find that what I am doing now is the same as before. When I was a child, I had to move and change schools frequently; when I became an employee after graduation, I met a terrible boss. Whenever these times, I will immerse myself in study or work, in this way to escape. Now, I just find an exit for myself by keeping my head buried in the game. I asked my team to focus on creating something cool and creative. "

The development work after that is even more intense than before the original version of the game was released. "I even think: Oh, my God, if you could give me a little more time, I would even take off one of my arms in exchange!"

Updates are free, and more revenue from the game can only rely on the participation of new users. The studio ran into a shortage of funds several times, but they gritted their teeth and persevered.

A year after the game was released, the studio quietly released a large free update, "Atlas Rises." with the arrival of this version, the game has fixed a large number of bug and added air combat systems, enhanced trading and economic systems.

This update is a turning point, the wind reviews of the game began to turn, Steam players' total rating from "mostly bad reviews" to "mostly good reviews", and even reached more than 70%. Data show that 1 million players have played with the updated version, with an average of 45 hours of play time.

This is a good start. Now, two years after the game's release, Unmanned Deep Space NEXT has been released and has landed on the Xbox One platform at the same time. Although many elements have been added, the original spirit and temperament of the game have not changed-it is still related to meditation and serenity, full of oriental Zen. The threat is still those external poor living conditions, not from any alien enemies or other players. Without shooting or conquering, you are still a tiny point in the vast universe, but the new game allows you to travel with your buddies, although the four are still nothing but dust in the universe, but at least your heart is no longer so cold and helpless.

"Unmanned Deep Space NEXT" is still cold, but it is cured.

When the promotional film "Unmanned Deep Space NEXT" was released, it received a warm response from many players, which made Murray feel very happy. "this is the purpose of your game. Although there is a group of angry thugs stuck in front of you, don't forget that there is also a large group of people behind you who are silently supporting you. I want to communicate with them and do something for them. "

Looking back on the past two years, Murray admitted that he did not have a good life. "it's too hard, it's too hard, we have a better balance in our lives now, and we hope it will be better in the future." It was all worth it, and he finally smiled relieved when he thought of the kid under the Australian stars and the players who never gave up and supported him all the time.

The new cover indicates the multi-player play of a team of four, and also seems to commemorate the members of the team who are walking hand in hand.