This is a reply to Chris's post, but i will take time to say hi to all the other guys here first - erm Hi, I'm Zak and as with most/all of you also an interested fan of IV's games and game making process.
Ok Chris this may turn out to be quite a long reply based around your overall blog post.
As a 'boss'(i.e non-pc programmer,passable artist/sound dude,game designer by default' jack-of-all-trades master of none etc) of my own emerging indie company i know just how frustrating it can be when you see+hear all about the money that the games industry has sloshing around...and yet you still don't own that solar powered eco-friendly future car you've always wanted(not everyone wants a ferrari right?).
I've been toying with the idea of just going the easy route - try to sell up to a big publisher and taste the gravy. Still like yourself i am not convinced this would enable to let me make the games i want to make(and play). I know a couple of friends that went into the mainstream industry, they got the office desk+salary etc but had to give up on the games they wanted to make as pretty much all that was decided in the boardroom by the money people+boss men.
I've been a gamer and small time programmer since the ZX81 days, and if there is one thing that gets proven to me as each new year passes by and we get the glut of mainstream titles; it's that it gets harder to find games I actually want to play+buy. And it's nothing to do with being jaded or getting older(I've hit the big 30 now!) - I live and breath gaming everyday. I sink my teeth into games like Xcom/Civ/Elite/Morrowind/Football manager/Settlers II etc over and over. And when I am not playing, I am designing/drawing/creating games i know i want to play.
And the reason for me is that the mainstream has become all about the graphics - it's sort of pasted itself into it's own corner and has no other option. To succeed in the mainstream it helps if you have that team(pick a number larger than your whole team currently) of graphics artists that can give you that 'next-gen'(which is kinda current gen now i suppose?) look. And with that comes cost, financial for sure but also gamewise in many cases i would argue.
Still this is the kicker for me. Are these games any better than what went 10 or 20 years ago? In some ways yes I would argue. In terms of production quality+slickness overall for sure. Sound and music also for the most part, even though i am very partial to those 'sid-chip' 8 bit music tracks from the 80's and early 90's.
Still the original Civ+Pirates!, Elite, Way of the exploding fist(or International Karate), Jet Pac, Sabre Wulf, Exile etc are all as engaging, fun and as good as(better than?) the best games I have played on any of the next-gen consoles. So while the best games of that early era of home computing are as good/fun to play as much of the current crop, the worst games of yesteryear(and there were some real dogs!) are probably worse than the worst of todays.
In a way I am glad that can be argued as being the case, after 20+ years you would hope the general level of game creation would improve as we learn from our mistakes(although a lot of that still goes on!).
To bring this back to LBP for a moment, well i can't help but be pleased that it looks good and may do very well. My consoles gather dust most of the time. Morrowind+Knights of the Republic kept the xbox dust free for a good year, and that was about the best that platform had to offer me. Harvest moon+Animal crossing keeps my other halfs Game Cube in use, and both of those games have that 'unusual' element that LBP seems to offer - something we should never be sad to see in a 90% stale and generic mainstream industry. lol even if the idea wasn't our own
So what the hell am I getting at with this rather long first post on your blog forum? I'm not totally sure. Maybe just to say that we all can get a little worn down by being close to the flame all the time? Sometimes it's good to step back and do something completely different for a while to help re-energize the creativity.
Also people like us are doing what were doing for a reason. Those reasons may have all different layers of personal specifics, but ultimately i guess the common root theme is because we are growing more disinterested in what the commercial games market produces for the most part and we still do love gaming.
Games are not made for us anymore so we try to make our own without getting lost in the endlessly hungry giant that is the Games Industry(tm). And it's tough when you don't play ball with the bankers, they are not in it for the games period; they are in it for money and profits come first, "good" game a distant second.
The good news is that as this method of game development continues the more space it creates for people who are not interested in all that. People like yourselves at IV. So i would argue that guys like yourself are very well positioned in that you have a presence and a great reputation.
The whole internet thing still hasn't really kicked of here in the uk - we seem to be a good decade behind the usa+australia in terms of the infrastructure and general spread of home based broadband. That is vital for the growth of real indiegame devs, especially when retail shelf space is so often tied up by the mainstream(great to hear about your deal with stores in the usa! that's a great breakthrough).
Anyway sorry for that LARGE ramble!! Keep up the good work and as long as you work to your strengths(rather than be what your not?) I'm sure you'll come up with the next LBP.......only better.....and on linux also.
kind regards,
ZakGordon.
