kidmystik101 on 5/3/2009 at 09:42

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I'm sure they spent more than 1 year making it. I believe they also went through a few engine changes, plus language translation, bug fixing, enhancing performace, etc. It's not as if they held on to it for the hell of it.

Also I hope that "and idiot" is a typo and not that retarded 4Chan shit.

Koki on 5/3/2009 at 11:17

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They were always using X-Ray for the game.
The game was first announced in 2001 and was to be released in 2003. In 2003 the pre-alpha leaked(build 1096) - compare it to 1935 and the final version, it's nearly identical - engine works, most of the graphics are done, most of the weapons are done, even the sounds were in from what I remember.
But once that leaked out it's as if GSC stopped working on the game alltogether. In 2005, after two years of absolutely nothing, THQ started to push them to actually get it done, which... didn't work, as they had to push them again exactly a year later, in february 2006, where the final release date was set for first quarter of 2007. And amazingly enough that STILL wasn't enough to get GSC to do the job they've been paid for - in January THQ ran some silly contest, winners of which were supposed to play the STALKER beta(Still beta, two months before what was the final game release) for 24 hours. Days before the event the duration was shortened to 12 hours, and when, on January 24th the winners arrived at the specified location, GSC told them they don't actually have a working copy of the game.
The public beta was released in late February, and the game went gold on the 2nd of march. About two weeks between a beta and a final release?

Here's how it probably went:
2001 - game gets announced
2001:2003(Or earlier, in 2003 the pre-alpha leaked, god knows when it was actually done) - GSC makes most of the game: Engine, most of graphics, weapons, sound, etc.
2003:2007 - GSC works only every second thursday.
January/February 2007 - with the release date dangerously close, GSC cuts off all the unfinished content(unfinished for the last four years), hastily wraps up what's been mostly done.
March 2007 - GSC releases the beta.



Games much more complicated than STALKER were conceived, produced, and released relatively bug-free in under two years.

The funny thing I've just noticed is that the build 1935 contains few levels advertised as "new" in Clear Sky. So Clear Sky uses same engine, models, sounds, and graphics, and now it turns out it also uses levels GSC cut from the SoC. I guess this explains how they managed to make Clear Sky in about a year, if 90% of the game was already done har har har.



It's a typo.

steo on 5/3/2009 at 18:36

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Oh shit, yeah sorry koki, you're right. I need to stop forgetting that you're omniscient, unlike the rest of us.

snauty on 5/3/2009 at 19:40

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more like: so what?

New Horizon on 6/3/2009 at 03:00

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Koki seems to have a very limited view of what actually goes into game development, and how sometimes...just sometimes...a great idea can run off the rails. Such was the case with Stalker. The original concept was far more ambitious at the time and really set out to do something BIG...but, as the developers found out, there just wasn't a way to realistically pull off everything they were trying to do. I kept up on Stalker development from day 1, and towards the end they took in someone...a new producer I think...to come in with a fresh set of eyes and trim the game back to something they could realistically manage.

The advanced AI stuff they were trying to pull off was pulled out, and I'm sure a bunch of other things. The final game turned out pretty good I think, considering how they had to scale it back from the original concept.

If there is one constant in this unforgiving world, it's that some people give absolutely no credit to those who have tried and failed. In my eyes, at least they had the balls to try something.