EPTStarCraft: Orcs in space go down in flames - Page 3
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Serdiuk
Belgium145 Posts
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mordek
United States12705 Posts
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TheRealNanMan
United States1471 Posts
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StarStruck
25339 Posts
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MrTortoise
1388 Posts
On September 28 2012 08:08 HawaiianPig wrote: The more I read these blogs the more it's clear that game development in this era was dominated by extremely skilled individuals facing the growing pains of a burgeoning industry. It seems it's resulted in a lot of accidental hit games. I mean... I especially love that Starcraft was rebooted on account of fear induced from a fake demo. Fantastic. But more specifically, every time I read a story like this, about the development of older games, I always notice one key theme: that developers were in the business of making games and not in the business of making games. Although guys like Allen Adham would push development cycles into strict timeframes or push for the development of more casual games, it seems that the sterile "maximize sales at all costs" approach would not bleed into the actual content of a game. There was no "What if soccer moms played this game?" focus group in order to make the game more accessible. There was simply: "Make an RTS game set in space" And that's what we got. THIS x1000 I couldn't of said it better. But I would of used more caps. | ||
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Rodiel3
France1158 Posts
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iNviSible.yunO
Germany211 Posts
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EatThePath
United States3943 Posts
On September 28 2012 08:08 HawaiianPig wrote: The more I read these blogs the more it's clear that game development in this era was dominated by extremely skilled individuals facing the growing pains of a burgeoning industry. It seems it's resulted in a lot of accidental hit games. I mean... I especially love that Starcraft was rebooted on account of fear induced from a fake demo. Fantastic. But more specifically, every time I read a story like this, about the development of older games, I always notice one key theme: that developers were in the business of making games and not in the business of making games. Although guys like Allen Adham would push development cycles into strict timeframes or push for the development of more casual games, it seems that the sterile "maximize sales at all costs" approach would not bleed into the actual content of a game. There was no "What if soccer moms played this game?" focus group in order to make the game more accessible. There was simply: "Make an RTS game set in space" And that's what we got. From my reading, it seems more like they were in the business of making games. They saw what appeared to be a vastly superior competing product and realized they needed to improve theirs or it wouldn't make any money. This coincided with new delivery media (CD-ROM) requiring bigger and better game assets to stay competitive, so the development process was extended. In both cases it was about selling a game that was good enough to sell, it seems to me. | ||
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Hesmyrr
Canada5776 Posts
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Sabu113
United States11077 Posts
On September 28 2012 08:08 HawaiianPig wrote: The more I read these blogs the more it's clear that game development in this era was dominated by extremely skilled individuals facing the growing pains of a burgeoning industry. It seems it's resulted in a lot of accidental hit games. I mean... I especially love that Starcraft was rebooted on account of fear induced from a fake demo. Fantastic. But more specifically, every time I read a story like this, about the development of older games, I always notice one key theme: that developers were in the business of making games and not in the business of making games. Although guys like Allen Adham would push development cycles into strict timeframes or push for the development of more casual games, it seems that the sterile "maximize sales at all costs" approach would not bleed into the actual content of a game. There was no "What if soccer moms played this game?" focus group in order to make the game more accessible. There was simply: "Make an RTS game set in space" And that's what we got. That seems unfair. This piece notes how Bliz's biz team had a target to push out games at X rate and the ion storm article he links mentions making "Burn games" to exploit contracts with publishers. It's the usual battle between risk,uncertainity and art. Sure we're seeing more games target women and softer demos but well frankly that's the point. Back then they were selling to a much smaller audience in a much smaller industry. | ||
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Forester
United States116 Posts
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Osmoses
Sweden5302 Posts
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SoniC_eu
Denmark1008 Posts
On September 28 2012 08:08 HawaiianPig wrote: The more I read these blogs the more it's clear that game development in this era was dominated by extremely skilled individuals facing the growing pains of a burgeoning industry. It seems it's resulted in a lot of accidental hit games. I mean... I especially love that Starcraft was rebooted on account of fear induced from a fake demo. Fantastic. But more specifically, every time I read a story like this, about the development of older games, I always notice one key theme: that developers were in the business of making games and not in the business of making games. Although guys like Allen Adham would push development cycles into strict timeframes or push for the development of more casual games, it seems that the sterile "maximize sales at all costs" approach would not bleed into the actual content of a game. There was no "What if soccer moms played this game?" focus group in order to make the game more accessible. There was simply: "Make an RTS game set in space" And that's what we got. haha how soccer moms played this game! :D Couldnt help but laugh at that! | ||
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klo8
Austria1960 Posts
On September 28 2012 19:38 hellsan631 wrote: I loved this blog and the previous ones that Wyatt has done. I also recommend reading the article he linked about what happened behind the Scenes at Ion Storm. http://www.dallasobserver.com/1999-01-14/news/stormy-weather/ The link is further down in the article, but it itself is also a great read That article is very interesting. The weirdest part for me is that most of those people still work in the games industry, as far as I know. | ||
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Budmandude
United States123 Posts
I then almost died laughing when I went to the link about why ION Storm folded and saw that they were the same company that made Daikatana. I just can't get over the fact that SC is an amazing game because of Daikatana. | ||
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tsuxiit
1305 Posts
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Kiarip
United States1835 Posts
On September 29 2012 09:36 tsuxiit wrote: Damn, what a unique and incredible company Blizzard used to be. It still is, or never was whichever one you prefer... If you actually read that article you will see that everyone who thinks that things were all about games back then more so than they are now is wrong... It's just that back then no one really knew the proper marketing formula for video games, so tons of products flopped and companies would be perpetually going broke and coming back up again under a different name thanks to the impending internet/technology bubble. | ||
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Cele
Germany4016 Posts
On September 28 2012 08:08 HawaiianPig wrote: The more I read these blogs the more it's clear that game development in this era was dominated by extremely skilled individuals facing the growing pains of a burgeoning industry. It seems it's resulted in a lot of accidental hit games. I mean... I especially love that Starcraft was rebooted on account of fear induced from a fake demo. Fantastic. But more specifically, every time I read a story like this, about the development of older games, I always notice one key theme: that developers were in the business of making games and not in the business of making games. Although guys like Allen Adham would push development cycles into strict timeframes or push for the development of more casual games, it seems that the sterile "maximize sales at all costs" approach would not bleed into the actual content of a game. There was no "What if soccer moms played this game?" focus group in order to make the game more accessible. There was simply: "Make an RTS game set in space" And that's what we got. Yes exactly how i feel about the subject. To me it seems this change of mind came some years ago, though i can't exactly put my finger on the when | ||
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Stratos
Czech Republic6104 Posts
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aiuradun
Denmark115 Posts
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