Included below is an intimate look at one of the games key developers, and their account of making RIOT.
--------------

A peculiar development journal

I’ve always been intrigued by the separation between gamers and
programmers. Press releases are usually created by marketing
and communication teams and not by the techies who usually
have other things to think about (typically, finishing the game).
This way, the truest stories regarding the development process
often get lost. Stories that might leave an impression on those
who will take the time to read them. Stories that go beyond the
noise and promotion of a game.

Three years ago, I was offered the possibility of taking over the
work started and abandoned by others on Riot. A game on
uprisings, police against demonstrators, telling a crude reality
that is not always shown to us in its entirety. A thorny subject
with topics difficult to digest and delicate to handle. But
moreover, an enormous project that three teams of
programmers in two years had not been able to complete.
What’s more, I was tasked to finish the project, more or less, by
myself! Luckily, I was crazy enough to accept.

Three years ago, at the same time, the illness of my father began.
Advanced stage pancreatic cancer, inoperable. An estimated life
expectancy of one year, in the best of cases, with the best cures.
I had to take a rapid decision, and not an easy one. would I be
able to manage the most complicated project of my life in the
most difficult moment of my life?

It is with this premise that my personal story with Riot begins. In
this context that I decided to restart programming the project
from zero, scrapping all the previous work done on the game,
much of it incomplete and obsolete by time I joined the team. My
predecessors, faced a number of technical difficulties far above
any expectation.

Now, three years of development to finally come to the end -
1,221,330 lines of code later, RIOT – Civil Unrest has launched
into Early Access. It has been a war fought against myself, against
the urge to surrender in front of that enormous amount of work,
rewriting the physics, the rendering, the animation system, audio
managements, artificial intelligence and a lot more: everything in
Riot has technically gone beyond the original capacities of the
Engine, becoming something unique.

Is Riot a game? This, I don’t know. I do know that it’s something
alive, organic, that some of you will love, others will find
insignificant, others confused, or violent. The most cherished
comments came from those who lived these events for real and,
upon trying the game at fairs, told us the game was extremely
realistic. The way I see it, if it succeeds in making gamers question
what’s happening in certain areas of the world, if it stimulates
them to get informed independently, it will be, for me, a
complete victory. I developed the game with a clear idea in mind:
both factions are made by people, people with their ideas, there
for something they believe in. There are just a few brutes, on
both sides- But during a riot even a little spark of violence can
become uncontrollable. It is this sensation that I hope you will
have all while playing: that sometimes violence seems like the
only possible answer, but the more you use it, the more you will
lose control of the situation. Until you regret having used it in the
first place.

I have fought my own long and silent battle to reach this result,
and have had the honour of assisting my father with a different
battle every day upon returning home from work. A battle that
he could not win, but that he fought until the very last day with
strength and pride. His “estimated” year of life became almost
two thanks to his sheer willpower, fighting inch by inch against a
merciless disease. It is also thanks to his strength, which I had as
an example before me, that today I can offer this experience to
you. An experience that, though tough and a bit rough around
the edges, you won’t find anywhere else. Give it a chance, and if
you won’t like it I hope that Riot continues to grow and improve
according to your suggestions.

I would like to take a chance to say thank you to all the colleagues
that made the game possible:

• Leonard Menchiari, author of the game and of all the unthinkable
  amount of design produced to achieve it.
• Fabrizio Zagaglia, the best programmer in the world, who
  collaborated with me during the last year to conclude this titanic
  endeavour.
• Michele Postpischl, who on his own recreated the audio of the
  riots in a masterful way.
• Ivan Venturi, the producer who made possible an impossible
  project.
• The team at Merge Games (Luke, Nick, James and Ben), who
  believed in the game supporting its development well over the
  standard duties of a publisher.

And to all the people who believed in the project.

Thank you.

Trigghy

[ 2017-12-07 16:11:16 CET ] [Original Post]