Over indie games devel
opment:
(aan de indie haters: /deal with it bro, indie gaming gaat alleen maar belangrijker worden
)
Interessante video!
Het gaat grotendeels over de voordelen die het
PC platform nog biedt over consoles (crowd funding, alpha funding, geen certificatieproces of extra kosten voor patches, etc).
Ik ho
op alleen dat Sony en MS hiernaar luisteren en gewoon meer vrijheid geven aan indie devel
opers. Sony is duidelijk al
op de goede weg want je leest niets anders dan positieve berichten van indie devs.
MS daarentegen slaat de plank volledig mis: indie devel
opers moeten een contract afsluiten met een publisher wat niets anders dan nadelen biedt.
Ik ho
op dat Sony ook ooit zaken zoals crowd funding en alpha funding gaat toelaten. Ik schat die kans wel reël want vele zaken die "big" worden
op het
PC platform worden ook later veelal door Sony en MS overgenomen: kijk naar de transformatie van pure gameconsole naar meer functies zoals de
PC, de toelating van patching, de sterkere nadruk
op digitale distributie, het streamen van games via Twitch.tv, het Free-to-play business model, het herintroduceren van dedicated servers voor vele MP games (h
opelijk) zoals men
op PC gewend is, etc.
Uplink and Darwinia developer Introversion has discussed the troubles that indie creators face getting their games noticed by publishers and traditional brick and mortar shops.
Introversion's Mark Morris was speaking during a panel at Rezzed 2013 discussing the various business strategies now open to indie PC developers.
1
Morris and Delay were on stage with Dreamfall Chapters' Ragnar Tornquist, Frozen Synapse's Paul Taylor, Project Eternity's Chris Avellone and Rock Paper Shotgun's John Walker.
"Publishers and retailers are c***s," Morris began, to whoops and cheers from the audience. "I can expand on that.
"From our perspective we couldn't get our games anywhere near UK retail when we started out. There was no interest in picking up any obscure titles. They just wanted 100 copies of the latest AAA title. If that model had continued then the indie revolution would not have occurred."
Introversion is now using a paid alpha model for Prison Architect which is already proving successful - Morris explained that the alpha alone was most profitable project in its history.
"Prison Architect is the most financially successful project that Introversion has ever done," Morris revealed, "without a shadow of a doubt.
"It's wonderful for us as we've never previously released a game that we were happy with - it always took us another six months to get to where we wanted to be on version one.
The discussion continued as Project Eternity developer Chris Avellone suggested that publishers and traditional retailers were simply behaving as companies do - not wanting to risk money on games which may very well not turn a profit.
"To play devil's advocate here, to an extent I understand where publishers are coming from," Avellone countered. "When they're investing $20-30 million in a crazy AAA game, their desire to take risks and be innovative, their desire to experiment with a hardcore or PC-only game... They don't want to hear any of that.
"Prison Architect is the most financially successful project that Introversion has ever done. Without a shadow of a doubt."
Introversion's Mark Morris
"They know their investment is so large and they understand the level of return they need to get. But the more we can get out of the loop of the old business model the better."
Alpha game models provide other benefits, too, the panel members agreed.
"One of the wonderful aspects of doing an alpha is we get feedback," Morris' Introversion colleague Chris Delay explained. "Sometimes it was as long as two years before anyone saw it, as your funds slowly trickle down to zero while you're making it."
Developers also know exactly how much money is coming in during development - and have an ongoing revenue stream - so studios know exactly how much they can spend, he continued.
http://www.eurogamer.net/...-get-their-games-in-shops