Bodycount director says Black's departure "unsettled" people, but development never stalled

Bodycount director Andrew Wilson has denied the game has faced a number of development issues since high-profile Codies developer Stuart Black left the firm for City Interactive last year.

Speaking with Eurogamer in an interview, Wilson said Black's departure, along with that of executive producer Tom Gillo and Codesmasters Guildford GM Adrian Bolton, unsettled some people, but at the end of the day, game development is a team effort and not the work of a sole individual.

"The problem is that a lot of developers will get through development without having a figurehead like that, because it can become a personality-driven thing," he said. "When you get someone like Stuart, who's obviously very outgoing, very passionate, and very capable when it comes to articulating the game, of course you put them up as the figurehead.

"It sort of gives a false impression of how important people are, because it's a dev team. By the time Bodycount's done, well over 100 people will have worked on it. You could take a variety of people across the team and say that if they left it would actually be more damaging than some of the senior people who have gone. Particularly on the code side, like the lead gameplay programmer - if he turned around and left tomorrow, I'd be a lot more upset, because he's fundamental in terms of actually getting the game built.

"So when you put a figurehead up like that, you can give a false impression of the importance of individual people. Really, it's a team sport."

Wilson went on to say that "it's not easy having people leave like that," but that it "happens a lot," and at the end of the day you just need to solider on.

Bodycount releases on PS3 and Xbox 360 August 26.