Brandon Boyer on independent game development
“He discussed the differences between the music industry and the games industry, quipping, “we don’t buy a music album and say ‘this album was only 30 minutes long’” — hence, why should we do it for games, he asks.
He also urged developers at AAA companies to “make a stand and go make the games you really want to”, citing examples like Superbrothers’ Craig Adams - formerly of Koei Canada - who struck out to make Sword & Sworcery with Capy.
Boyer finished by urging developers to consider the following: if a game can’t provide as deep an experience as a music album can, then we must question why exactly that is. He asked developers to personally consider the answer for themselves, and attempt to make games that can provoke the same “color” and emotion that music can.”
Cool rundown on Develop of all of Sony’s 1st party studios around the world.
Edge reviews Starcraft at release in 1998. Part of a web reprint of 150 reviews marking the 15th anniversary of the magazine.
“Plants Vs Zombies: Introduction to perfection”
Several great points here…
http://www.next-gen.biz/opinion/plants-vs-zombies-introduction-perfection
Menus
These can be a real barrier to gameplay for several reasons. First, the more menus you offer, the more the user may explore, each one delaying time taken to get to the game. Secondly, the more choice you offer, the more you may confuse the player. Some players may feel confused by some of the terms used or be scared of making a wrong choice. Reducing the number of menus, especially in “casual” games, lessens the possibility of players leaving.
PVZ is masterful here, offering only one game mode and immediately beginning. There is no difficulty level, no pop-ups to dispatch. All unnecessary friction has been eliminated.
What’s interesting at this point is the delay between selecting the option to play and the time taken to actually start the game - 12 seconds. The first seven seconds of that is displaying ‘PopCap Presents’, then a further five-second action-packed gameplay movie. Other studios put their logos and intro movies up front, causing frustration for some players, because they’re here to play the game. PopCap gives you the game, then shows the gameplay movies. More satisfying? I think so.
The Last Rocket
Put about two hours into this great 8-bit inspired puzzler, The Last Rocket this weekend. Creator Shaun Inman is a prolific designer, having also created the ground-breaking web-publishing metric visualization tool Mint a few years ago.
Rule #1 of flash-success on the app store: Say what you are, don’t overthink it.
