A developer for Skull Island: Rise of Kong has made claims regarding the recently released game that has been the subject of many bad reviews. Skull Island: Rise of Kong was developed by award-winning IguanaBee Studios, based in Santiago Chile, and published by GameMill Entertainment which is located in Minnesota. The two have worked together on a number of projects, and apparently, there is a pattern of small teams being assigned combined with short timelines. This latest project has become a bit of an eyesore and may end up becoming a contender, alongside Lord of The Rings: Gollum, for the worst game of 2023. LOTR Gollum is another game where the development team and the publisher may not have had the best arrangement with each other.
Per The Verge:
“The development process of this game was started in June of last year and it was aimed to end on June 2nd this year. So one year development process,” said a developer at IguanaBee, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal.”
The Verge added that its source also claimed that the team for Skull Island: Rise of Kong ranged from two to twenty people at any given time, thus making the challenge of creating a quality game in such a short span of time even more insurmountable. Another former employee for the developer said that GameMill often provided little information for projects but also kept funding to a minimum which led to the smaller teams and timelines.
“I remember very well that they let go of a colleague who had been there longer than me,” the developer said. “Deep down, I knew it was because the publisher didn’t provide them with enough funding to maintain a certain number of people for an extended period.”
The developer to whom The Verge spoke added that the developer’s resources are ultimately tied to the funding from the publisher and it’s just a vicious cycle for studios who want to make their own games but depend on licensed properties from publishers to generate revenue.
“It’s a love/hate relationship because they are the ones who accept or give the projects and Iguanabee doesn’t have the means to develop almost anything on its own because well, money,” said the developer at IguanaBee who worked on Skull Island.”