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Tag: Secret of Circadia

  • Suicide Squad director says development became driven by spreadsheets, not game design

    The world of video games is often a battlefield between artistic vision and financial strategy. Recently, the fallout from one of these battles in the gaming industry has brought a stark lesson into sharp focus: the temptation to prioritize monetization over genuine game design.

    This theme is particularly relevant when looking at the journey of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Developed by Rocksteady, a studio celebrated for crafting immersive single-player experiences like the Batman Arkham series, the project represented a major pivot toward a live-service multiplayer model. The ambition was high, but the execution ultimately faced significant headwinds.

    Despite years of development and multiple delays, the game launched in 2024, leading to considerable disappointment among fans who sought the quality they expected. Financial realities soon set in; WB Games recorded a substantial $200 million loss on the project, forcing Rocksteady to reassess its direction.

    The shift from crafting masterful gameplay experiences to chasing revenue proved costly. As executives focused heavily on recouping investment through monetization rather than pursuing artistic excellence, the core mission of the studio began to drift.

    Axel Rydby, who was involved in the development of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and joined Rocksteady in 2018, offered a candid look into this internal struggle. In an interview with Bloomberg, Rydby revealed how priorities fundamentally changed over time.

    “Over time, and after being delayed from 2022 to 2024, the priorities of the executives shifted toward recouping their investment,” Rydby explained. “That’s when I started feeling like I wasn’t making games anymore. I was following a spreadsheet, some elusive marketing-analysis spreadsheet that no one could present clearly. I kind of felt like this isn’t the gaming industry I wanted to work in.”

    This realization highlights a critical tension: the temptation to treat game development as an exercise in market management rather than creative exploration. For many, the pursuit of profit can easily overshadow the pursuit of true innovation.

    Following this period, Rydby made the decision to leave Rocksteady and establish his own independent studio, where he is now working on ambitious projects like Secret of Circadia. While Rocksteady has remained silent about its next move, whispers suggest the team may be exploring a return to the single-player Batman game format.

    Ultimately, the experience serves as a reminder that while stunning visuals and cinematic moments can draw attention, they do not guarantee a successful product. The market’s reaction underscores a broader truth: exceptional design must be rooted in creative vision, not simply guided by financial spreadsheets.

    Credit: KitGuru

  • Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s development got so bad that it almost turned its devs away from the industry for good: ‘I could feel myself coming apart at the seams’

    Featured image Suicide Squad Kill the Justice Leagues development got so bad that it almost turned its devs away from the industry for good I could fe

    There are games that become cultural touchstones, and then there are those that feel like a cautionary tale. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League certainly falls into the latter category. While it might offer some chaotic action, the story behind its creation is less about epic superhero mayhem and more about the brutal realities of chasing profit in the gaming industry.

    From the outset, many observers felt that the game was built not on pure creative vision, but on a desperate need to be replayable and profitable. This ambition quickly morphed into an overwhelming pressure cooker, suggesting that the goal wasn’t just to make a good game, but to construct an infinite money machine.

    This quest for monetization came at a steep cost. Post-release revelations confirmed that the project, which consumed significant resources, ended up costing Warner Bros. $200 million—a figure that starkly contrasted with the outcome.

    The developers involved, Axel Rydby and Johnny Armstrong, later spoke candidly about the experience of bringing this vision to life. They described a period marked by confidence, but also an intense sense of constraint.

    “We were coming back off hit after hit,” Armstrong recalls, suggesting a foundation of self-belief. However, that confidence quickly collided with the demands placed upon them: relentless delays and the need to justify massive investment.

    As the focus shifted entirely to financial metrics, the atmosphere changed dramatically. Rydby noted a profound sense of unease as they navigated the landscape. “I started feeling like I wasn’t making games anymore,” he explained. He felt pulled away from the creative joy and into the realm of tracking elusive marketing spreadsheets.

    The pressure amplified when developers were given impossibly tight deadlines, often just six months, with the mandate to fix bugs while simultaneously figuring out complex questions about player reach and design changes. This unrealistic expectation created an environment where development felt less like an artistic pursuit and more like a frantic scramble for targets.

    “It was a big culture shift,” Armstrong reflected. Despite putting in countless hours, the process didn’t feel like it was tangibly improving; it felt like everyone was running to stand still.

    This intense stress eventually pushed the creators to reconsider their path. Feeling drained by the chase for cash and disillusionment with the industry’s direction, Armstrong and Rydby decided to pivot. They left Rocksteady to collaborate on Secret of Circadia, an RPG deckbuilding game. This move signaled a desire to return to projects driven by passion rather than purely financial outcomes.

    Their experience with the blockbuster project served as a stark commentary on the wider gaming world. It highlighted a dangerous trend: the shift from making games out of love and personal desire to creating them solely for shareholder return. As one industry voice suggested, the simple formula for great game design is clear: “A studio makes a game because they want to make a game they want to play themselves.”

    Credit: PC Gamer