Torment: Tides of Numenera
So, I love games. One of the upcoming ones I'm really excited about is: Torment: Tides of Numenera (currently in Kickstarter form, as you can see).
They just.. they did SO many things brilliantly, with their kickstarter, with their design, with communicating with the fans. Here's why I think it'll be awesome:
* Planescape! Well, so unfortunately ( Read more... )
They just.. they did SO many things brilliantly, with their kickstarter, with their design, with communicating with the fans. Here's why I think it'll be awesome:
* Planescape! Well, so unfortunately ( Read more... )
Isn't there something lost ... an aspect of mystery and of an open mind ... when the creators of an interactive fiction talk so openly, and take such open public feedback, about their creative process?
Two of my favorite parts of the gaming experience are the surprise of an unexpected element - a scene, a place, an item, an homage - and the feeling of entering a world with unknown limits. Aren't those both seriously handicapped by this process?
If Trent Reznor had hopped online and explained, in great detail, exactly where he got the idea for each lyric and each sample, and handed out lo-res "work-in-progress" mixdowns and taken suggestions and votes from fans on where they wanted the mix to go, I imagine the eventual album would have sounded like forgettable crap, and I would feel LESS personal connection to the music, not more.
Couldn't it be said that the kickstarter process is, itself, the entertainment? Or at least a huge part of it? And doesn't that process change the nature of what is successful in the medium? Kind of like the way that touchscreens and one-dollar stand-in-line games like Angry Birds sucked all the oxygen out of the PC and console RPG scene? Are people going to expect a suggestion box and a tip jar bolted onto every project? Doesn't anyone just read a book any more? Why don't these kids get off my lawn??
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It does come down to personal preference, however. If reading/watching the "making of" kind of material lessens your enjoyment, then definitely don't do it! :)
I think for me, being a hobbyist game developer, I like that sort of thing, I like to watch the sausage get made. It helps me feel closer to the game/sausage, to know that it came from this particular little piggie named Hubert, and which particular hoofs and cuts of meat went into it.
The one thing I EMPHATICALLY disagree on, however, is the statement "Kind of like the way that touchscreens and one-dollar stand-in-line games like Angry Birds sucked all the oxygen out of the PC and console RPG scene".
Why do you think that's the case? (Having just returned from PAX East and spent two days gazing at new and upcoming games, and in general keeping a close eye to the games that are coming out) I feel that the PC and Console scene, far from having the oxygen sucked out of it, is experiencing a golden age / a giddy renaissance.
There's more games than ever, and more _different_ kind of games, better games, more innovative games than ever. If you like Triple-A mainstream titles, the industry certainly provides them aplenty, and they're pretty amazing. But more importantly, the indie game scene, fueled by easy deployment platforms like Steam, Xbox Live (and the Wii and PS3 equivalents), and yes, iOS and Android, is blossoming.
The gaming market is not a zero-sum games. The success of Angry Birds and such has tapped a completely different market than that of hardcore first-person shooters, or retro pixellated RPGs, or space shooters, or strategy games, etc, etc.
So I'm curious why this perception on your part?
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It's not merely entertainment. It's a new funding model, one that enables _precisely_ the kind of innovation (in the PC and console scenes) that you decry is missing.
Kickstarters (for competent game companies of small and medium size) is brilliant in the same way that Community Supported Agriculture is brilliant. A farmer needs money in the winter, to hire workers, buy equipment and fuel, buy seeds, etc. But the produce will be ready to sell in the summer and fall. By selling subscriptions or pre-sales up front, farmers get funding when they need it most, and the consumers get a more personal and involved relationship with their food supplier.
Take a look at the first video on this article: http://penny-arcade.com/report/article/the-two-men-who-believed-in-and-risked-their-careers-for-a-new-torment-titl (where the inXile guy satirizes a meeting with a typical game publisher), to see what I mean.
Through Kickstarter, game developers lessen their risk. They get funding and pre-orders up front from the consumers themselves, instead of having to pitch to game publishers (who have an immense pressure to their shareholders to fund only "sure thing" projects -- essentially remakes or sequels of boring flagship games). Not only that, but they're able to make precisely the kind of small to medium (by sales) titles that wouldn't get funded at all, but have a blending of the indie game developer's innovation but also the high production value of a large dev team.
Lastly, Kickstarter allows for game developers to do all sorts of "premium" editions of the game that are not possible through regular channels. People can pay more and get all sorts of perks -- cloth maps, beautifully printed manuals, game tie-in novels, treasure chests, and also things like beta access to help test the game, and their own name in the game credits.
So anyways. Kickstarter == fucking awesome. Don't think of it as a tip jar. Think of it as CSAs + personal involvement with the game that's not possible through any other channels.
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