Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Director Axel Rydby and designer Johnny Armstrong have admitted that the game’s development almost made them quit the games industry entirely.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Armstrong, who joined Rocksteady in 2010, spoke about the game’s development, saying that the team were excited to work on a new game that focused less on the Dark Knight.
“There was definitely a sense when we first moved on to it — arrogance is the wrong word, but a confidence,” Armstrong said. “We’re coming back off hit after hit. Of course we’ll be able to do this.”
However, the mood eventually shifted when Warner Bros wanted Suicide Squad to be a live-service game, something that Rocksteady had never done before. “It was a big culture shift,” Armstrong said.
As development continued, it became clear that processes such as feature implementation and playtesting were more difficult and time-consuming than on previous projects.
“We put all these hours in, but it didn’t feel like it was tangibly getting better,” Armstrong said. “Everyone felt like they were having to run to stand still.”
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was originally set for release in 2022, but several delays pushed it to 2024. The prolonged development cycle led to more pressure from Warner Bros, as their goal shifted from huge live-service profits to simply making a return on their investment.
Rydby, who served as one of the game’s four directors, said that conversations with the publisher quickly shifted, with questions such as: “How many players can we reach with this feature?” or “How can we twist this design into something that can be more replayable?”
“That’s when I started feeling like I wasn’t making games anymore,” Rydby said. “I was following a spreadsheet, some elusive marketing-analysis spreadsheet that no one could present clearly.
“I kind of felt like this isn’t the gaming industry I wanted to work in.”
Following Suicide Squad’s release in February 2024, Warner Bros. chose to move on from the game rather than attempt to turn around its fortunes. The decision proved to be the breaking point for Armstrong, who questioned whether he wanted to continue working in the games industry.
“I felt everything drained from me,” he said. “I said, ‘I can’t do this again. I don’t know if I’m done with the industry, but I’m done.’ I could feel myself coming apart at the seams.”
Both Armstrong and Rydby have now left Rocksteady and are teaming up to develop their own game: Secret of Circadia. The pair are hoping to raise $11,404 through their Kickstarter campaign, which opened earlier this week.
Rocksteady’s next project is currently unknown, but reports and rumours currently suggest that the studio is working on a single-player Batman game, following an ill-fated push into live-service with Suicide Squad.