Playing Hard Report
The documentary Playing Hard focuses on the process of making and selling the game For Honor, code named ‘Hero’ during development. At the time of the documentary being made, the games industry was predicted to be worth 100 millions dollars by 2017. It is told from the perspective of the man who created it and the emotional toll the development and release of the game took on him.
The first step of the process involved pitching to companies until they decided to fund the game. He was rejected several times before being accepted by Ubisoft and part of the reason behind this is that sequels to successful games are much easier to produce than new ideas. It was pitched and funded at increasing stages of development. The team behind the game grew larger and it became harder to manage as an individual, so more people were delegated responsibility until the man behind the game had much less influence on its creation.
Eventually the game was tested and critiqued by players so the developers could know what people liked and disliked about the unfinished product. There was news nearing the end of the development that the split screen function had been removed despite the creator saying it was necessary and it received some criticism.
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