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"Our mistake was to bank on something that was not yet proven," says Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen.
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In the wake of Cities: Skylines 2's shaky launch and mixed reception, developer Colossal Order and publisher Paradox Interactive have parted ways, with a new dev, Iceflake Studios, stepping in to continue patching the city builder.
The issues with Cities: Skylines 2 ranged from poor optimization to an absence of modding support to a perceived lack of features (at least when compared with the original) to its Bridges & Ports expansion being delayed for more than a year.
At least some of Skylines 2's struggles both during development and post-launch were due to the Unity engine the game is built on, according to Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen. "We completely overestimated the engine's capabilities at the beginning of the project," Hallikainen said when we talked earlier this month.
"When we started to work on the sequel, we very much built all the plans toward features that were not finalized in the engine. So, we basically wanted to future-proof the game. We were all the time thinking that we will be working on this game for possibly up to 10 years, post launch," Hallikainen said.
"We basically looked into the very new technology that Unity was offering, and that turned out to be a mistake, in the sense that there were features that didn't actually fulfill the promise," she said. "We ended up in a situation in the development where we had to build much more things to either replace missing features or something that [wasn't] working.
"This was something that we very much now understand, that our mistake was to bank on something that was not yet proven, and that was a huge hindrance throughout the development of Cities: Skylines 2."
Some of the issues with Unity at the time, Hallikainen clarified in an email after our talk, were "the general instability of the engine, HDRP shader pipeline missing core features like the interpolators, and the ECS [Entity Component System] long running job support (the lack thereof)."
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
In my 2023 review of Cities: Skylines 2, I noted some performance and optimization problems as well as a general sparseness to its features—though I definitely didn't expect the city builder to run into quite as muc...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
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Every Thursday
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Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
In the wake of Cities: Skylines 2's shaky launch and mixed reception, developer Colossal Order and publisher Paradox Interactive have parted ways, with a new dev, Iceflake Studios, stepping in to continue patching the city builder.
The issues with Cities: Skylines 2 ranged from poor optimization to an absence of modding support to a perceived lack of features (at least when compared with the original) to its Bridges & Ports expansion being delayed for more than a year.
At least some of Skylines 2's struggles both during development and post-launch were due to the Unity engine the game is built on, according to Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen. "We completely overestimated the engine's capabilities at the beginning of the project," Hallikainen said when we talked earlier this month.
"When we started to work on the sequel, we very much built all the plans toward features that were not finalized in the engine. So, we basically wanted to future-proof the game. We were all the time thinking that we will be working on this game for possibly up to 10 years, post launch," Hallikainen said.
"We basically looked into the very new technology that Unity was offering, and that turned out to be a mistake, in the sense that there were features that didn't actually fulfill the promise," she said. "We ended up in a situation in the development where we had to build much more things to either replace missing features or something that [wasn't] working.
"This was something that we very much now understand, that our mistake was to bank on something that was not yet proven, and that was a huge hindrance throughout the development of Cities: Skylines 2."
Some of the issues with Unity at the time, Hallikainen clarified in an email after our talk, were "the general instability of the engine, HDRP shader pipeline missing core features like the interpolators, and the ECS [Entity Component System] long running job support (the lack thereof)."
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
In my 2023 review of Cities: Skylines 2, I noted some performance and optimization problems as well as a general sparseness to its features—though I definitely didn't expect the city builder to run into quite as muc...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?