Dead Island 2 Interview – Making zombie-slaying heaven, but was it “development hell”?

thesixthaxis.com:

Years on from its original announcement, Dead Island 2 is finally about to be a reality for gamers. This zombie-bashing sequel has been infamous for its indefinite delays and being bounced from one studio to another.

We’ve been hands on with Dead Island 2’s opening hours, getting a look at how the final game has been coming together, but what was “development hell” like from the inside? And how has Dambuster Studios put their own stamp on a game and concept that they didn’t initially come up with? We were able to chat with Game Director David Stenton to peek behind the curtains.

TSA – It feels a little bit mean to put it this way, but what is “development hell” like from the inside?

David Stenton – I guess the only thing that we can emphasise at Dambuster is it’s not been development hell for us! Obviously there’s been iterations and the project being announced back in the day, but for us at Dambuster it’s been a pretty regular dev cycle.

Every project has its challenges, and we’ve been really trying to push the envelope with Dead Island 2, with the combat system and wanting to be best in class.

I guess it’s been interesting to read some of the comments from people that describe Dead Island 2 as having been in development hell. I guess maybe as a game title, and we can’t ignore that it was announced previously, but the fact of the matter is that just wasn’t our game. Our game is the one you’re seeing now. We’ve ben working on it since pretty much 2018, so what’s gone before really has nothing to do with us!

TSA – Maybe it’s more been development hell from the publisher’s perspective?

David – [Laughs] Yeah, that’s for sure! Some of the folks that we’ve worked with have been in it for the long haul!

PR – Hey! What are you