Bend Studio canceled its live service game due to lack of progress in 3 years of development, according to a former developer.
Senior Animator Robert Morrison (via Reddit user Midnight_M_ ) took took to Twitter/X to share a list of games he has worked on during the last decade, including a canceled live service game that was in development at Bend Studio. According to his LinkedIn profile, the project was called “Mirror Pond”.
A fellow Twitter/X member responded by saying, “‘I’ll never get over what they did to [Bend Studio],” to which Morrison mentioned that the development team didn’t make enough substantial progress over the 3 years he was at the studio. He had already expected the eventual cancellation to happen.
According to the details mentioned in Morrison’s LinkedIn profile, he was involved with the creation of hand keyed and motion capture based gameplay animation for the main player characters and NPCs. He handled aspects like locomotion, traversal, combat, abilities, interactions, select screen, and more.
The developer closely collaborated with programmers and designers to prototype, build, improve and refine numerous gameplay systems. He provided input into rigging and other tech art pipelines. He was also involved with integration and iteration within the Decima engine, indicating that Project Mirror Pond was being developed in Guerrilla Games’ engine. He also handled the direction of the motion capture shoot, creation of unique previs animations and continual creative brainstorming. He also provided input to the development team, helping to guide directors, design, narrative and other departments.
Back in June, it was reported by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier that Bend Studio faced significant restructuring after laying off approximately 30% of its workforce, as the developer pivoted to another project in the wake of the cancellation of its live-service game earlier this year. This development arrived amid broader turbulence in Sony Interactive Entertainment’s live-service game ambitions.
