Team Bondi accused of dropping developers from L.A. Noire's credits

In aninterview with The Sydney Morning Herald, an industry insider told the Australian paper he had worked on L.A. Noire between 2009 and 2010, but left Team Bondi before the game was finished. Nevertheless, the unidentified developer claimed his work appeared in the final retail version, along with the work of over 130 developers who have not yet been officially acknowledged for their efforts. To fix this oversight, the developer has since posted a list of 'completecredits' tolanoirecredits.com, wherein he explains, %26ldquo;These people devoted their talent, creativity and passion towards the project and, as is common in the games industry, have not been credited because they were not there during the final month or two of production, or other subjective criteria.%26rdquo;

On the site, thesource further alleges many of the uncredited L.A. Noire craftsman did not leave the studio by choice, but were forced to vacate Team Bondi due to staff redundancies. Others, like himself, left on their own accord after working countless hours in what he described to the Sydney Morning Herald as being an %26ldquo;inflexible and virtually praise-free environment.%26rdquo;

Regardless of the reasons, the source believes Team Bondi robbed theAussie developers of their hard-won bragging rights, explaining, "There has been a lot of press saying how incredible this is for the Australian gaming industry, since it is the biggest (and most successful) game made in Australia to date ...But that has come at the price that most of the people that worked on it will never have proof of having worked there (unless they want to pull out a paycheck)."

According to International Game Developers Association's (IGDA)guidelines on game credits, all staffers who work on a project for more than 30 daysdeserve to be credited regardless if they are around when the game ships. That said, the source admitted some of the uncredited L.A. Noire developers were told upfront their names would be forgotten if they were to leave the company prior to the completion of the project. When asked to comment on this particular case, the IGDA noted, "It's important for individuals working in the industry to check their contracts before signing them so they are aware of how and where they will be credited for their work.%26rdquo;

For now, unless Team Bondi releases some form of "extended credits DLC" (read: unlikely) , the 130-odd uncredited devs will have to make do with their names at lanoirecredits.com or at the IMDB-esque video game websiteMoby Games.

Jun 21, 2011

[Source:The Sydney Morning Herald]