Always talking, never listening: Why Peter Molyneux's Godus is such a disaster

[Jos]

"You know what Peter Molyneux's like," an ex-22Cans employee told me while trying to sum up the infamous designer's tendency to make enormous promises and then just kinda... forget about them. "You try to hold onto his words and they slip through your fingers."

Molyneux—who has long had a reputation for making promises he never quite delivered on—has again been accused of misleading statements, if not outright false ones, in relation to Godus, his Kickstarter god game revival. In an attempt to get to the bottom of it all, Kotaku spoke both to Molyneux and to three people who have worked with him over the past few years. This is the story of how Godus ended up where it is today.

Read the complete article.

 

[VitalyT]

Game designer Peter Molyneux has long had a reputation for making promises he never quite delivered on. He has again been accused of misleading statements...

Sounds like most of people surrounding us however. It's more like one needs integrity and perseverance not to fall into the ordinary, that which is harder to come by.

 

[TechSam]

Really not enjoying this slating that Peter is getting all over the web for the past couple of weeks.

He's a passionate game designer, tries to go 110% on the games he makes but of course falls short due to limitations of just general issues somewhere down the line.

Until he starts churning out terrible games like Colonial Marines, I'll still love him for what he does.

 

[loading]

I've tried downloading Godus to my two phones (work/home) and on neither one would the game actually load so I have no idea if the game is any good or not.

 

[VitalyT]

I've tried downloading Godus to my two phones (work/home) and on neither one would the game actually load so I have no idea if the game is any good or not.

From the fact that the game wouldn't load on any of your phones, we must surmise the game is really good...

 

[Kibaruk]

Ok so... all I have to say is...

"You only have to do the math," Molyneux said on a Skype call yesterday. "There are about 22 people here and the average salary is about $40,000. Do the math on how much that costs to run the studio for a month

How about you do better math and actually set the goal to an actual ammount with which you could make the game?

Bad planning and poor execution are not an excuse. Ever.

 

[hahahanoobs]

It seems this Molyneux guy has a reputation...

 

[gingerbill]

From great game maker to snake oil salesman . He is an intelligent man who has been getting further and further away from the truth as the years go by , always playing the " I made a mistake" , " I didn't realise it would take that long" card over and over . For someone who has been making games for decades he seems to not know much about making games.

The press have been far too nice and taken far too long to call him out on his nonsense.

 

[Macnme]

Listening to Molyneux is like listening to an abusive husband.."I know I've mistreated you in the past, and that I've promised to not beat you anymore and broken those promises... but THIS TIME I promise I won't beat you anymore...now where my ****ing sandwich!"

 

[Macnme]

Really not enjoying this slating that Peter is getting all over the web for the past couple of weeks.

He's a passionate game designer, tries to go 110% on the games he makes but of course falls short due to limitations of just general issues somewhere down the line.

Until he starts churning out terrible games like Colonial Marines, I'll still love him for what he does.

He promises Unicorn flavoured Pizza, and delivers Donkey Pizza instead.
Every. Single. Time.

At somepoint, you have to say to the man "Shut up about Unicorns... how about just a plain cheese pizza?"

 

[Tazo The Vault]

When multiple employees tell the same story, it's the employer that's lying. Molyneux should be "idea guy" and nothing more. He has great, interesting ideas for games, yet apparently has no concept of procession or focus in the industry. There are great game devs and terrible ones, and he's no longer in either camp for lack of being able to get a stable game out the door at all.

 

[TitoBXNY]

He and Randy Pitchford should collaborate on a big gaming project.

 

[Guest]

I played Godus on iOS from its release until around mid-November. This game is nowhere near completion, it feels like a beta. You do all this stuff in the game which is completely pointless, but seems like maybe it was meant to lead into something. The tech advance system makes no sense, there's no research and resources don't come into play in it. The whole in-game purchase system seems bolted on as an afterthought, and its pretty much pointless once you realize how little there is to accomplish in this game.

Aside from the optional exploration missions, there is no conflict at all. Sure, the Astari are there, but they are no threat. And those exploration missions, they have a whole boatload of problems of their own.

This game isn't a game at all, it's a toy. It goes nowhere, there's not really any goal even though it seems like there could be a goal. It seems like an experiment with some game mechanics that might be used in some game, someday. Ultimately I deleted it from my iPad.