From reading that F13 article on how little oversight there was from MS and Sony, it's kind of hilarious to look back now on Aradune bragging about how much creative freedom their publishing deals gave them. Turns out that freedom most likely sunk the game, or let the train runaway for a lot longer than it should have.
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A good majority of that money went into the art creation, since as Kendrick has said before the art side of the house was in full gear a good year or two before Dev started ramping up.
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I want to be very clear: I am not attempting to piss on anyone's grave here, and I know that this is probably a very touchy subject. But I wondered from the day it was announced whether having Keith Parkinson as the Art Director was a good idea or not. Keep in mind that I personally have difficulty drawing stick figures, let alone dragons. And I've never once used photoshop, let alone Maya or any other rendering program. But it's one thing to have him on-board to do concept art and give direction for the game, but I really have to question whether he was qualified or not to be in charge of the game's entire art creation process (if he indeed was, I don't know). The guy may be an amazing fantasy artist, but did he have a firm grasp on art creation for a video game? Given how poorly the game looks in a lot of respects, outside of the obvious technical/performance issues, it's a shame that it ends up as his legacy.
