Sweet Baby Inc. has been the talk of the town lately, so much so that members of the Alan Wake 2 and Spider-Man dev teams had to speak up on Twitter (X). Read on to learn more about the Sweet Baby Inc. situation and each dev team member's reaction to it.
Various Game Devs Shed Light on Sweet Baby Inc. Situation
Online discourse about one of gaming’s hottest topics continues with various game devs weighing in on Sweet Baby Inc.’s sudden infamy. To recap, Sweet Baby Inc.—a narrative development and consultancy firm based in Canada—was recently under fire from the gaming community for the actions of a couple of their employees.
Said employees called for the removal of a curated Steam list—aptly named Sweet Baby Inc. detected—highlighting all of the company’s previous cooperations across various clientele. They also called for the permanent banning of a Steam user called Kabrutus, who created and maintained the curated list.
Public uproar across multiple platforms, namely Twitter (X) and Reddit, has been reverberating in the gaming community for days since the initial outcry. Many have gone on to accuse Sweet Baby Inc. (SBI) of propagating "woke" agendas in their previous work and shoehorning diversity into the gaming industry.
The discourse regarding the situation has finally reached a point where various game developers, some of whom have previously worked with SBI, finally decided to clear the air and support SBI.
Associate Narrative Director of Insomniac Weighs In
Mary Kenny, associate narrative director at Insomniac Games, took to Twitter (X) with a thread shedding some light on the actual prevalence and application of SBI’s work on projects they’ve collaborated with. "Some of you don’t seem to understand how narrative consulting on games works, but don’t worry: I do!" wrote Kenny on the first of twelve Tweets. "Yes, this is about Sweet Baby, because I’ve worked with that team, and they’re one of the finest in the biz."
They went on to explain the step-by-step process of consultancy and what could warrant it, including situations like underbaked characters, confusing and conflicting requirements, and a general lack of manpower for narrative writing.
"This next part is key, because some of you seem really confused: NARRATIVE CONSULTANTS DO NOT GET FINAL SAY, and they don’t override the core dev team and leads," Kenny continued on a later part of the thread. "IT DOESN'T GET INTO THE GAME IF WE DON'T APPROVE IT."
"They CONSULT. They do research, pitch ideas, give feedback, and maybe even write scripts," Kenny continued. "But none of that gets into the game unless THE CORE DEV TEAM AGREES WITH IT. I'm going to keep saying that, because it's key."
"Sweet Baby is not, nor is any consulting group, coming in to wreck games. They’re helping smooth out plots and deepen characters. They ease the burden on the core narrative team. They're additive in every way," Kenny finished.
Comments on the thread ranged from agreeable to outright hostile, with one commenter going as far as calling Kenny’s post "passive-aggressive snark". It’s not all opposition, however, as consultants, developers, and former employers of SBI start to echo Kenny’s words.
Indie Dev Rami Ismail Further Explains Kenny’s Points
One of the more prominent echoers of Kenny’s points is indie developer and consultant Rami Ismail, who added, in his own post, that as a consultant, you must understand that "your work is advisory" and "your position is easily eliminated."
Ismail’s post was similarly populated with comments ranging from agreeable to contentious.
Alan Wake 2 Director Dismisses Rumors About SBI
These accusations are far from being the only ones thrown at SBI recently, with one of the more prevalent theories relating to a character from Alan Wake 2. As the theory goes, FBI agent Saga Anderson was supposed to be portrayed as a caucasian woman, but then had her ethnicity changed when SBI collaborated with the project.
This theory was put to rest by Alan Wake 2 director Kyle Rowley, who addressed the theory directly on Twitter (X), saying that it was "absolutely not true."
