The reason this blog exists

Postby **Chris** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 8:33 pm

Things are changing at Introversion Software. Recently we launched our third game Defcon; a game which took just twelve months to make (despite being our first ever Multiplayer game), and sold more than Darwinia or Uplink ever did. Internally we're no longer content with just one major project in development. We've swept awards ceremonies and stood on stage in front of thousands of cheering people, then blown the winnings on fast cars and expensive food. We've walked into Future Publishing dressed as fools, all in the name of PR, and we've been taken to dinner by Nintendo, Valve, Molyneux. We've expanded to the point where our company costs £25,000 a month, just to stay operating. We are five years old and three games down, a more mature and serious company, more confident and more competent than ever before. There can be no doubt; things are changing at Introversion Software.

We're now facing on a daily basis the kinds of moral challenges and dilemmas we discussed during the really early days, before even Uplink was released. The 21 year old Chris/Mark/Tom trio that first dreamed of a genuinely indie games company while bunking off lectures on databases would be terrified of such money passing through, and of the freedom that would inevitably be lost to prudence and business savvy. It's the question we now face every time we make a decision; are we losing something of Introversion as a consequence of this deal? Are we walking the line that ends with us abandoning the reason we started? Put simply, is this selling out, or is it just business?

One of the things we believe has been lost is the brutal honesty with which we used to communicate with the world. We're working on projects at the moment that simply cannot be announced; projects that we believe in and can't wait to finish, that would evaporate in a cloud of legal wrangling if their existence was ever revealed before the first sanctioned and approved press release. A direct consequence of this is that our news page now hosts those press releases, and is no longer a fit place for individuals within our company to speak about what's actually going on internally.

It was Vicky's idea originally. Vicky handles all of our PR and marketing fulltime, and among her numerous roles she lifts the crushing burden of endless interviews every week by cunningly exploiting the fact that for the most part we've been asked the same ten questions since the beginning of time. Ironically this blog was first conceived as a nice bit of free PR for the website, but Vicky wasn't the only one having this idea; I'd been talking about doing an experiment with our fourth game, announcing it Molyneux style (ie far too early), and running a blog through its entire development. Vicky had the idea of writing about the perils of being gorgeous and blond while working in a geek's world, which we suggested she named Sex in the SimCity. There are many smarter and better writers than us already blogging about the state of the games industry, so we're going to stay reasonably on the subject of Introversion, but each of us agreed we have something to say and nowhere currently to say it.

Hence, the reason this blog now exists.

mibias · Postby **mibias** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 10:07 pm

this will be better than the newsforum indeed... its drowning in PR...

ScareyedHawk · Postby **ScareyedHawk** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 10:07 pm

FIRST P-- Aww SHIT!

Anyway, a blog sounds like a good idea.
Make sure you tell us all about your evil plans.

mibias · Postby **mibias** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 10:09 pm

and when you take over the world... Please dont nuke Denmark

SODsniper · Postby **SODsniper** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 10:27 pm

mibias wrote:and when you take over the world... Please dont nuke Denmark

I would also prefer that ya'all leave Northeast Florida relatively intact as well..

SODsniper

xander · Postby **xander** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 11:58 pm

A dev blog about Updefwinia! Yay! How exciting. Exclamation point! I can't wait to hear about the nitty-gritty of being IV.

xander

martin · Postby **martin** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 12:13 am

how did I miss this when I came on the forums earlier? anyways, a dev blog - although surely all that typing was wasted - it could have been code! work harder slave!

Rkiver · Postby **Rkiver** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 1:05 am

Sweet idea, I like it. I like it a lot.

SODsniper · Postby **SODsniper** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 1:12 am

WOW!!!!

Nice theme!!!

And SIGS too!!!!!

WOOOT!!!

Shwart!! · Postby **Shwart!!** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 1:14 am

This should be interesting to see. Hopefully you will all still be afloat in 10 years so I can come work for you... as if you would ever let me in, newb that I am...

martin · Postby **martin** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 9:31 am

Shwart!! wrote:This should be interesting to see. Hopefully you will all still be afloat in 10 years so I can come work for you... as if you would ever let me in, newb that I am...

hey! get off - I'm there in 3 or 4 years

SODsniper · Postby **SODsniper** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 1:12 pm

Whaaa happened to the kewl new theme??? :cry:

SODsniper

Montyphy · Postby **Montyphy** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 1:41 pm

SODsniper wrote:Whaaa happened to the kewl new theme???

This?

SODsniper · Postby **SODsniper** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 2:47 pm

Montyphy wrote:
SODsniper wrote:Whaaa happened to the kewl new theme???

This?

Ahhhhh Better....

Thanx, MP...

Slinken · Postby **Slinken** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 4:01 pm

SODsniper wrote:
Montyphy wrote:
SODsniper wrote:Whaaa happened to the kewl new theme???

This?

Ahhhhh Better....

Thanx, MP...

nooooooo Defcon theme forever

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