Mark Gerhard, co-CEO of Build A Rocket Boy, recently responded to what he felt was a deliberate attempt by the media to “Trash” the studio’s upcoming game, MindsEye. In a Q&A session via Discord (and hosted by IGN), he went on to state “that there is a concerted effort by some people that don’t want to see Leslie (Benzies) or Build A Rocket Boy to be successful,” suggesting bot farms have played a part in this discourse to some degree. On the worst day, this is the statement somebody makes when they are caught in a lie and don’t want to admit fault.
This give-and-take between the developer and its perception isn’t new, but it reached record highs when a preview event for the title didn’t allow those in attendance to go hands-on and experience it firsthand. What they did get to see was not positively received, with issues like bugs at the forefront, but gameplay mechanics were not received either. This led, as one might imagine, to questioning the validity of the game itself. Unlike Abandoned, the Blue box title that seemingly wanted to trick people into thinking it was Silent Hill, MindsEye is real. On June 10th, there will be some answers to the questions posed by it, but there is just no way of knowing if these answers are good ones.
MindsEye looks, for its part, to be a well-developed game. The Title is an AAA title armed with hyper-realistic graphics and a focus on narrative storytelling. Players take the role of Jacob Diaz, a former soldier who has the titular MindsEye implant, who travels to the city of Redrock to attempt to discover the secrets behind this, and if the trailers have been any indication, get into shootouts and car chases in the process. Despite the trailers suggesting some sense of depth to the city of Redrock, the game features a “faux-pen” world similar to that of the original Mafia from 2002, having the player limited to moving between objectives. It has been stated that there is some exploration featured in the game at launch, but the extent of which has been a non-answer.
People could be forgiven for forgetting that Mindseye is, in actuality, part of a larger project from Build A Rocket Boy, entitled Everywhere. The title hasn’t been replaced, but Mindseye went from what was supposed to be a proof-of-concept premium game straight into a $60 AAA game that will, according to devs, have game creation tools built into it that use the Everywhere system, which itself uses Unreal Engine 5. While Everywhere had a private alpha in 2024 to test its ARCADIA system, which is used to create user-generated environments, the public focus has clearly been elsewhere. Since Mindseye is adopting the creation tool Arcadia, some questions have been raised regarding whether Everywhere is just MindsEye now.
It might be important to note that Fortnite UEFN was released in 2023 by Epic Games, which acts as an in-game creation tool for Fortnite that uses Unreal Engine 5 as well. This happened to be the same year MindsEye was teased as part of Everywhere, which itself was already in development for 7 years at that point. There really is no way of knowing the impact the competition might have or will have, but with Fortnite remaining one of the most popular games on the market, and UE5 being Epic Games’ proprietary engine, it would be hard not to draw the conclusion of which way the wind would blow. Based on changes that followed shortly after, Build A Rocket Boy might have felt the same.
Build A Rocket Boy only recently outlined the post-launch plans for the game, something that has been stated they plan to support the “Build A Rocket Boy universe rapidly expanding for decades to come,” which feels like a dubious claim. MindsEye was initially stated to be part of an episodic series that would feature multiple time periods all connected with an overarching story, but those claims have not remained at the forefront of the conversation about the game since then. Of all the post-release roadmap plans, the most notable is probably the Free-Roam update planned for winter, which, presumably, gives players the ability to actually explore the map. This being a planned feature, but not a launch feature, despite much of the assets assumably in the game given the scope of in-engine cutscenes, it begs the question of whether the linear narrative of the launch product was a choice born out of necessity rather than artistic merit.
The big takeaway from the preview event wasn’t whether or not the game was a lie, but whether the game should be delayed. Most people in attendance stated that what they were shown was in a rough state. The title didn’t even receive a trailer highlighting gameplay till mere weeks prior to release, which is never a great sign. Given that the entirity of EveryWhere is now at 9 years of total development, mounting pressure to release something might be playing a factor here, it wouldn’t be the first time, however it would be a rarity for a broken game to repair itself, and arguably more costly both in actual cost alongside goodwill toweards a studio with nothing under its belt thusfar.
Another reason delaying feels like the answer here is that despite launching on both consoles and pc, the creator tool, much of the success of the game has been seemingly placed upon, is only set to launch on pc alongside the game. This means a big portion of the community will only have a 15-hour, linear campaign, which, by all reports, doesn’t run great, to actually judge the game by. User creation tools, when added, have brought players back to games in the past or caused a spike in users, but the developers are again talking about building something over decades with MindsEye as the foundation, not just acting as a first impression for itself, but Everywhere and ARCADIA as well. This, of course is depends on if Build A Rocket Boys’ plans haven’t changed, or at least more than they already have. Quantify that with a campaign by Mark Gerhard to defend the game by calling criticism manufactured, even paid for, and even the hint or developer gaffe upon release becomes doubly problematic.
All of this is to say, nobody should hope that upon release, MindEye isn’t a good game, just that measured optimism feels appropriate here. Games that look too good to be true often turn out to be just that. Either way, there is something to be said that Build A Rocket Boy does have plans to release it, which at least shows a commitment to the game, if nothing else. MindsEye will release on June 10th for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC.
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