PAX 2011: Publishers Are Followers, Not Innovators, Says Indie Dev

[Greg Tito]

PAX 2011: Publishers Are Followers, Not Innovators, Says Indie Dev

A developer who transitioned from AAA development to the independent scene laments publisher's refusal to take risks.

Chris Stockman has been around the block, man. (heh) He was the design director on the first Saints Row at Volition Games so he is well aware of the relationship between developer and publisher. Many of the stalwarts at Volition would love to continue the Freefall franchise they began in the late 90s, but the publisher THQ and Interplay own the IP and don't think the market would support a space combat sim. Stockman was so passionate about reinvigorating one of his favorite genres that he quit Volition and decided to strike out on his own. He doesn't understand why publishers won't take a chance on a genre that is crying out for a renaissance with all of the technology available to game designers now.

"Most publishers are not innovators," he said tome at PAX. "They are followers."

"No one has done a really successful space [combat] game. I think as soon as someone does, you will see the trail of people who will line up and do space games," said Stockman. "Once GTA was successful, how many open-world games came out after?"

Stockman hopes the game he's making at Seamless Entertainment - SOL: Exodus - is the title that accelerates the genre to lightspeed, but he's been up against publisher opposition from the start of development.

"The key is convincing people that this [genre] can sell. It's been like pulling fucking teeth," he said. "That's why we came to PAX, to show that there are still people interested in this game. There's still people who want to play [a game like SOL: Exodus. And you guys that don't want to take that risk, we hope that risk is mitigated by showing that fans of the genre are into it and they just want something good."

Seamless's SOL: Exodus may not be a home run but I respect that Stockman's company is at least swinging for the fences. Publishers take note: I am definitely one of the fans who has been clamoring for such a title and I'm sure there are people in the comments section who will say they'd love to play it or something like it, too.

Please, give SOL: Exodus and the space combat sim genre the shot it deserves.

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[CrystalShadow]

Space combat games? Yes please...

Then again, I'm patient enough to cope with the complexity of X3 (or realistic flight sims for that matter.) so maybe I'm not a good indication of the mainstream market.

But seriously though. Wing Commander was once king of the hill as far as games were concerned.
They would never have gotten away with having the biggest budgets of any games from that era otherwise.

So what exactly killed the space combat genre anyway?

 

[AndyFromMonday]

Publishers are not followers, they're evil pieces of shit that suck on the life force of good developers and turn them into husks. Honestly, the gaming industry would be better off without publishers.

 

[The Random One]

While he has a certain point, I find his example unfitting. The reason people were not making sandbox games before GTA broke out is that they hadn't thought of that. On the other hand, Rockstar, which was then known as DMA Design, made several games with a sandbox feel, including Body Harvest and Space Station: Silicon Valley. In fact, I've found no sandbox game has such a distant approach from GTA as their own Body Harvest.

Not saying that publishers don't do that - they sure do. It's just that it's not the case.

Publishers are not followers, they're evil pieces of shit that suck on the life force of good developers and turn them into husks. Honestly, the gaming industry would be better off without publishers.

There was an article a few days ago here by the makers of Amnesia about how they managed to get their game published. Go read it and see how fun it is to be a small dev trying to send out your game.

 

[SageRuffin]

Publishers are not followers, they're evil pieces of shit that suck on the life force of good developers and turn them into husks. Honestly, the gaming industry would be better off without publishers.

What would you recommend then? Self-publishing? That's fareasier said than done, sir/madam.

You know what I wish here was more of? Platformers. I've been grinding away something crazy in Banjo-Tooie (fucking run-arounds) the last couple of days, and I personally miss the days of silly, lighthearted, whimsical platformers, with talking animals and being able to shoot fire underwater, and collecting completely useless items for currency and whatnot (okay... maybe not the last one).

I would say we need more fighters as usual, but the last few years have actually been rather kind to fighting game fans (with such awesomeness like Skullgirls and VF5:FS only a few yonks away), so I can't really complain.

 

[Firia]

I play EVE Online, and fondly remember days of the SNES [em]Wing Commander[/em] and ps1's [em]Colony Wars.[/em] When Battle Star Galactica went huge, I was waiting for the day that a space sim game would (I was sure) come out and rock my socks off with intrigue and space combat on small scale and massive scale.

Space Sims have also not been done to death yet. Another open world environment? Yawn. Open universe?! Good morning!

 

[AndyFromMonday]

There was an article a few days ago here by the makers of Amnesia about how they managed to get their game published. Go read it and see how fun it is to be a small dev trying to send out your game.

I would have no problem with developers if they'd just stop that whole "fuck innovation" thing they've been pushing on developers since for fucking ever. The moment more sequels get released than original IP's you know everything's gone to shit.

 

[Sgt_Jakeman214]

OOH! A game where I get to control a spaceship, and blast the hell out of my enemies with BIG MASSIVE CANNON AND LASERS?!?!?! COUNT ME IN! I don't care if I'm flying a fighter or a battleship, I would love to see the space sim genre return to the mainstream.

It would make a great change from these so called gritty realistic brown shooters. Seriously. I'm over the 'mainstream' FPS. And it would be nice to see the publishers take a note from the book publishing industry, in that unless they buy the rights through a contract they don't own the rights to the IP they publish, rather they promote and make the copies of the book, and take a cut of the profits with most of the profits going to the author to create more books to sell. Video game publishers just want to own everything and expect money to somehow fall into their wallets.

This is probably the reason facebook and app type games are becoming so popular. THEY ARE ORIGINAL AND NOT A COPY OF SUCCESSFUL FORMULA/IP #347!!!


2012 looks to be the year of the indie/small developer bringing out all the games the general populace wants to see. I for one, am very happy about this!

 

[Awexsome]

Space sim flight game... my personal wet dream.

I'm really, REALLY hoping that that will be Bungie's next big project. The rumor is an MMO type game but just exactly in what genre that MMO might be is complete speculation.

It could make sense. The "Long Night of Solace" mission for Reach was a test of the waters to see how people reacted to space combat (personally I thought it was the most bad-ass part of Reach). Add in full skirmishes with capitol ships and all... I haven't gotten a good fix of space flight combat since SW: Battlefront 2. Bungie's always struck a new standard and threw open the doors with each of their new IP's. Hell they did it multiple times during the Halo series.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Many of the stalwarts at Volition would love to continue the Freefall franchise they began in the late 90s

Freefall, huh?

You must mean Freespace... seeing as Freespace 2 is still considered one of the best space combat sims around (and with their last act as an independent studio Volition released the FS2 source code, allowing the game to continue growing).


OT: Publishers have always been a bit risk adverse, but looking at the budgets of so-called AAA titles (sorry, but 'AAA' is too ill defined for me to take seriously) today, racking up tens of millions of dollars, is it any wonder that publishers have become ever more risk adverse? Sinking that sort of money into a project leads them to demand from developers the broadest appeal to maximise potential sales.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

So what exactly killed the space combat genre anyway?

There are a few theories... and the one I think hits closest to the mark is that space combat sims, having always been something of a niche genre, stopped hitting the increasingly higher sales targets that go hand in hand with ever increasing production budgets. Publishers lost faith in the ability to turn a profit from the genre. Once they lost faith there was no money for devs to make the games.

Lots of people have ideas as to why space combat sims stopped selling well... although 'well' was a shifting concept (see above). Some people point to shifts in technology. Others point to it being a PC dominated genre that suffered when PC stopped being the premier gaming machine. Others still point to a lack of sci fi based around similar themes. I blame the fall of Communism... no real reason, I just do.

 

[Jabberwock King]

I haven't gotten a good fix of space flight combat since SW: Battlefront 2.

I yearn for the joy of high speed murder in the cold vacuum of space nearly everyday... On a less psychotic note, I can't agree with you more. I like a good FPS as much as the next guy, but space combat is great, because lets face it, Its In SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!

How it could be considered a risk is beyond me. They must have had some idiot accountant who tallied up the profits across all genres and found that Space sims brought in the least, he then announced a general order to have them stop being made, without realizing to compare the number of titles against the profits. How derp derp would that be if it were true?

 

[TheDooD]

I can respect this guy's opinion, I know publishers are suppose to make money they're business men. Yet at the very same time gutless pussies that are scared to lose 1 fuck dollar. They already have million upon millions of dollars most of it they aren't gonna spend. If they want more cash they're gonna have to start taking risks instead of waiting around for something to come out that's been done well and copy the IP to death. Also It'll be nice if they stop treating the customers like thieves, while giving the real trouble makers like pirates, cheaters and farmers a free pass.

 

[Jabberwock King]

BTW, we're talking about actually flying a space craft in this game right? The reason I ask is because the utter lack of content in the genre has made me almost incapable of comprehending its glory.

When I think about the reasons for why this genre has been abandoned, I usually see 1st person shooters as being a significant cause, especially Call of Duty. I remembered a time when having vehicle sections in a game was about as distinguishing as saying that it came in a box. When CoD4:MW came along, it was pretty much always infantry combat and the few sections not on foot were on rails. I suppose space sims had already fallen by that point, but the heightened interest in shooters just shoved more dirt onto it's grave.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

How it could be considered a risk is beyond me. They must have had some idiot accountant who tallied up the profits across all genres and found that Space sims brought in the least, he then announced a general order to have them stop being made, without realizing to compare the number of titles against the profits. How derp derp would that be if it were true?

Why would a publisher fund the development of a space combat sim (SCS) when they could fund the development of a FPS that, on genre averages (for back when you could by SCS), sell 5-10 times more units for the same cost?