Hardcore Gaming's Salvation?
Quarter to Three talks to three developers about the profits and
perils of bypassing the traditional retail market
Con't.
Qt3: Does being a small developer who's selling direct allow
you to get away with not having state-of-the-art graphics and glitz?
Wardell: Yes and No. You still have to have good graphics.
I know I won't play a game that has crummy graphics. But at the
same time, it doesn't have to have an hour of cut-scenes. And not
everything needs to be 3D rendered. I am still not in favor of strategy
games using 3D unless there is a sound gameplay reason to use it.
Dunham: As I recall, we were slammed by the interviewer
for just this, so obviously not :-)
Though let me add that I think our graphics are *better* than state
of the art -- King of Dragon Pass has an infinite number of polygons,
after all. Of course we trade off for frame rate. Luckily, the judges
at the 2nd Independent Games Festival opted for polygon count and
gave us the Best Visual Art award.
Moylan: To a extent, but only a small one. Gamers and reviewers
will forgive up to a 20% "glitz gap" between an indie game and a
big studio game. But that's all. It's unfortunate, but if you allow
your game to look obsolete you're dead.
Qt3: Do you have trouble getting your game reviewed by the major
publications?
Wardell: We'll find out soon enough. But we've found in
the past that the game magazines tend to be generally fair overall.
The main problem is how much time they'll put into a review. Small
developers don't tend to get the benefit of the doubt. So if a smaller
game takes time to get into, we tend to suffer for it in the review.
Whereas in a big name game, the reviewer will tend to take the time
to get into the game before passing judgement. I.e. a small game
that fails to get the attention of the reviewer will tend to get
a "This game sucks!" reaction. Many of the greatest games of all
time took time to get into (Planetscape: Torment for one).
Dunham: Not really. (Though sadly of all the reviews, the
two big print magazines seemed to take the most offense at KoDP's
lack of frame rate.)
Moylan: To our surprise, no. Reviewers gave us their full
attention and treated us well. Even better, they understood and
enjoyed the intent and design of Combat Mission. They didn't treat
it like just another generic 3D game. They "got it".
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