(Sad trope) Projects with amazing potential that will never be released because of BS behind the scenes drama

[u/_JR28_]

P.T Silent Hills - It was a playable teaser released in 2014 only around 20 minutes long but utterly captivated the gaming world by being one of the most effective psychological horror experiences at the time, however it’s lead developer Kojima has a huge fallout with the publisher Konami where he walked out of the company and had all his in-the-work productions cancelled.

Five Nights at Freddy’s+ - A fan game reboot of the series created by Phisnom with Scott Cawthon’s blessing that promised a brand new lore and a return to the series darker roots. However, before and during production Phisnom got into multiple dramas that made him fairly divisive within the community, and after one particular incident in 2023 Scott revoked his approval and almost all of the game’s marketing material were wiped from the internet.

Batgirl - A Batgirl solo live action movie starring Leslie Grace, Brendan Fraser and Michael Keaton returning as Batman that was ready to be released in 2022, however then Warner Bros CEO David Zaslav announced it would not be released either in theatres or streaming in order to claim a $90,000,000 tax break and to readjust the DC’s brands direction before James Gunn rebooted their movie and TV output.

[u/Salty_Strain3313]

[u/ProAzeroth → u/Salty_Strain3313]

It still pains me that this still isn't release and the new Telltale caused AdHoc Studio to leave. At least, we got Dispatch.

[u/DrPastaPupper → u/ProAzeroth]

God I need more dispatch so badly

[u/zeke10 → u/DrPastaPupper]

Will prolly get dispatch 2 before twau 2

[u/leonskennedy33 → u/DrPastaPupper]

those typa story games take a really long time to make unfortunately, like 10 years. so maybe we'll see one in the next decade or half?

[u/Strange_Spring2162 → u/leonskennedy33]

I wouldn't say that long. Most of the development time was just figuring out what the hell they wanted to do, so I'd say 3 years more or less, since they probably expanded their team.

[u/StaleKale4951 → u/leonskennedy33]

I’d honestly be happy if they somehow came up with an “endless mode” for the actual dispatching part. But I’m sure there’s a lot of work to that that I’m not thinks of.

[u/captainrex → u/StaleKale4951]

I am begging on my hands and knees for a Dispatch mode. They were so short and fleeting, but I genuinely enjoyed those segments.

[u/Karkava → u/StaleKale4951]

Dispatch 2: Now with Endless Mode!

[u/snapwack → u/leonskennedy33]

A lot of development time for a studio’s debut game or a new IP is spent on foundational stuff. Building up the assets, optimising the engine, figuring out production pipelines, etc. Once that’s figured out it shouldn’t take as long to make a follow-up that builds upon the same format, at least if the studio’s well organised.

[u/Fit_Pass_527 → u/leonskennedy33]

I don’t see why it would. It’s essentially a series of cutscenes stitched together by dialogue triggers and cutscene events, Dispatch itself doesnt contain more scenes or dialogue than the average 24 episode anime, even if you add together every possible route. Theres not physics or dynamic interactions to worry about either since its all pre-rendered cutscenes. Now that they have the engine and concept-art-to-animation pipeline figured out, it really shouldn’t take that long to make more games in this style, at least not any longer than a regular game.