Fans of Doctor Who know that there are few monsters more terrifying than the Weeping Angels, lightning-fast predators that resemble angels and become stone statues whenever they are observed directly. Their episodes involve some remarkably tense standoffs wherein the Doctor and his companions have to lock eyes on the monsters, daring not even to blink for fear of their frightening speed. The Flock lets you play as a creature similar to the angels, prowling the dark in search of energy and turning to stone whenever in sight of their prey. Taking control of such powerful creatures feels great, but to win you have to give up that power and survive as the rest of the Flock hunts you. This is one of the most nail-biting multiplayer games ever.
The Flock was intended to go offline once its total player lives hit zero, but it happened much earlier than that for other reasons.
Despite enjoying a lot of positive pre-launch coverage, Vogelsap’s asymmetrical multiplayer shooter The Flock failed at launch. Creative Director and Game Designer Jeroen Van Hasselt analysed the launch and what went wrong during this frank and honest talk at Control Conference 2015:
I will really like to talk to that guy and ask him why they decided not to run a KickStarter. I mean, they had the only thing that is really needed for a KS campaign: Hype. I know a lot of the backers will end up being disappointed, but at least the developer team wouldn't be in financial troubles. Is there any true advantage on releasing directly on Steam?
Very interesting video.
Seems to boil down to a naive and inexperienced team trying to do something different.
The sad part is that the game doesn't come across as ambitious or interesting. It comes across as a generic game with one gimmick - the population count. The game needed to be able to stand on its own even without the population part, but it didn't come close.
The Flock was an interesting game that was plagued by some really awkward and silly issues. While the game was fun, it got repetitive fast and its content did not justify its price tag. Thankfully, Creative Director and Game Designer Jeroen Van Hasselt realized that and shared his opinion about the game’s launch, and what his team will do in order to spark further interest.
