The making of.....(Insert game here)

[Family Fry]

I have read a few articles on Edge when they do this and it's always interesting to hear the process. I recently watched all of the God Of War 3/Heavy Rain features that were on disc and it made me think, why don't developers do this more often?
I wonder why we never see more of this content on game discs or even as downloads?
We get directors commentary and documentary footage on DVD/Blu-ray films, we don't see much of these on games even though now narrative is becoming a lot more movie like. The Portal commentary is a good example of a decent commentary, very interesting to play through the game and hear a snippets at specific points in the game and it works very well.
So would you like to hear more about the game you bought and played and are there any games out there that have these features you would like to recommend?

[dataDave]

I find commentaries and especially 'Making of...'s very condescending. I already know they make special effects on computers using wireframes, I don't need telling over and over.

[charlesr]

I almost never listened to them on movies.

They cost time/money to create - I'd be happy with a cheaper film and increased bitrate on the picture quality.

Same with games really - I'd never bother and if it increased game price then superbad.
Next there will be an achievement for playing through again with the commentary on. "Commentary endured"

I know a few people that do watch the extras though, and I'm sure they'd like it in games too.

[dataDave]

I almost never listened to them on movies.

They cost time/money to create - I'd be happy with a cheaper film and increased bitrate on the picture quality.

Same with games really - I'd never bother and if it increased game price then superbad.
Next there will be an achievement for playing through again with the commentary on. "Commentary endured"

I know a few people that do watch the extras though, and I'm sure they'd like it in games too.

Yeah, plus the additional one month delay on release because they had to wait for the project lead to come back from his stupid holiday.

On Gold/GotY editions it's a good idea. But not launch tackle.

[DeathAdder]

I'm vaguely interested in the film ones. Loved the documentary about the making of the original Star Wars trilogy. Empire of Dreams? Part of the DVD set.

No interest at all in how games are made, personally.

[dataDave]

I had to laugh at a Star Wars one I watched once... Showing the orchestra wearing casual attire and John Williams at the front conducting...

"And this is how we make the music!"

No ****!

[ezee ryder]

I find commentaries and especially 'Making of...'s very condescending. I already know they make special effects on computers using wireframes, I don't need telling over and over.

It's not all about that though. Believe it or not, they do talk about and show other aspects of the development.

I (like Family Fry) found the God of War III and Heavy Rain "making of" features to be very interesting and highly enjoyable. I would definitely like to see more "making of" features bundled in with games. The God of War III and Heavy rain features didn't cost anything extra, just came on the game disc itself.

[abigsmurf]

We could no doubt expect hundreds of features talking about how great it was to work with Nolan North...

The trouble with these things is that they turn into the horrible interviews and promo stuff you get with Hollywood films. No one wants to or is allowed to say anything negative about their stuff.

You end up with mind numbing stuff like:

George Clooney : "I think Batman and Robin will really move the superhero genre forward! It was such a great film to make"

I much prefer the out-of-contract interviews that talk about films (Alan Cummings talking about xmen 2&3, Son of the Mask) where you get frank, interesting comments.

Likewise I enjoy finding out that Lara Croft's backpack covered some awful looking joins, that the Triforce hunting in Wind Waker was a last minute thing put in because they couldn't get another dungeon ready in time.

There's a developer focused mag/site in the US that has a '1 year on' type interview where developers talk about what was good and bad about a game. You sometimes get surprisingly frank and honest takes on their own games. Forgotten the site though.

[Decider-VT]

Having them on a separate disc would be okay. That way you could choose the regular version or the special edition of the game, as you can with DVDs. Most of them would probably be quite similar but having a look behind the making of a Street Fighter game or something would be quite interesting, especially if it dealt with things like balancing play mechanics and the involvement of the fan community.

[kernow]

I found them the most interesting section of edge in the last few times I read it, especially if I'm interested in the game itself. I used to like reading the older ones and how they came across cool things by accident or managed to squeeze everything out of the hardware or use cool tricks. great stuff!

[Flabio]

Go to gamasutra.com and look up the post mortems from Game Developer magazine.

Those are usually some good reading.

[Darwock]

The ones on GOWII were very interesting, and it wasn't all happy praisey type stuff either - they showed a few argy-bargy sessions. Also lots of insights into what it's like for the staff there too... it's worth a watch.

[abigsmurf]

Go to gamasutra.com and look up the post mortems from Game Developer magazine.

Those are usually some good reading.

That's who I was thinking of

[BeyondJumpFish]

Well it makes sence that it would be downloadable and done after the game had been out for a while. Surely there must be some making of's floating around the PSN somewhere?
I remember Porsche Challenge had a kind of behind the scenes on the game disk, which at the time blew me away on the ps1.

[QualityChimp]

I remember watching a making-of about Burnout 1 or 2 on PS2 and on one of the levels they'd recreated Jabba's palace on the hillside of one track.

I really wanted to watch the making-of videos for Guitar Hero II, but needed to spend any money won on guitars and characters to get some achievements. I've still not seen them...