10 Video Game Developers Who HATE Their Own Creation
Postal III's developers want it to "rest in piss."
It simply isn't possible for all video games to live up to their potential - after all, so much goes into the creation of a game that things won't always hit the mark, and that's fine. They can't all be influential masterpieces, right?
And while terrible games can be incredibly disheartening for eager players who've thrown their money down, it's not only players who get vocal about their overpowering hate for a video game.
Sometimes developers make no bones about the fact they can't stand a game they made - and the franchise it spawned.
Sometimes it comes down to nothing more than quality, but other times one of the principal team members might hate what's happened to the series, or regrett how much of their working life has become wrapped up in it.
As much as most video game creatives tend to toe the line of diplomacy for political reasons, these creators had no such desire to hold back, instead making it abundantly clear that they loathed the very thing they brought into the gaming world.
No matter their quality, these games remain despised by their creators...
10. Core Design - Tomb Raider
Though Tomb Raider is one of the most iconic and influential video game IP of all time, that doesn't mean those who helped bring it to fruition have much enduring love for it.
Tomb Raider's creation is largely credited to artist Toby Gard, who came up with both the concept and Lara Croft herself.
However, Gard was left frustrated with publisher Eidos for their heavily sexualised marketing campaign, prompting him to leave Core Design during early production of Tomb Raider II.
Gard, who wasn't thrilled about the idea of Tomb Raider becoming a franchise anyway, said of his decision to leave:
"I had problems when they started putting lower-cut clothes on her and sometimes taking her clothes off completely... It's really weird when you see a character of yours doing these things. You can't believe it. You think, 'She can't do that!' I've spent my life drawing pictures of things and they're mine, you know?' They belong to me."
Gard forewent hundreds of thousands of pounds in royalties payments he would've received had he stayed at Core for even a short period, such was his growing distaste for the very thing he'd created.
Gard's departure put a severe dent in morale at Core, and by the time the studio had produced three Tomb Raider games in the span of two years, there was major burnout among the team.
The developer was tired enough with Lara Croft and the entire enterprise that the fourth game, Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, sought to kill her off, only for Eidos to effectively undo this and force Core to make more games regardless.
Though Gard did return to oversee the Legend trilogy in the mid-to-late 2000s, Tomb Raider at this point shifted over to a new team at Crystal Dynamics, who didn't bring the same baggage - that is, hate - for the IP that the now-defunct Core Design did.