Industry Vet to Young Devs: You Might Never Be AAA

[Susan Arendt]

Folks, "original" in this sense means "new IP" not "new and creative idea."

That doesn't change the meaning of what is being said. It still is a big kick to anyone trying to get in. "Sorry, you will probably get stuck working on Madden umpteenbillion and similar for the rest of your career" is not that much different than "You will probably never get to work on anything that you will actually want to be associated with." To me, the latter actually seems a little bit worse...

I know that what I and so many others have set out to do isn't easy, but I really don't need to hear about another person doubting us.

It's not about doubting you, it's about painting a realistic picture of the way jobs are distributed in the industry - and then telling you that, hey, even if you're not one of the few who gets to work on the big-budget blockbuster, that doesn't mean you're not using your creativity.

I get where he's coming from. A *lot* of newbie reviewers expect to come in and review the big games right away, but that rarely happens. You have to earn your stripes, hone your craft, and pay your dues. And a few other cliches. A lot of them drop out as soon as they discover that their vision of what their "dream job" would be like doesn't match the immediate reality. I can only imagine that the same is true on the development side of things, and Ellis is trying to prevent some of that.

 

[JEllery]

I don't see why Halo is classed as an original AAA title. It was just a first person shooter that was pretty good. The fact that it got popular doesn't mean it was original.

There will be plenty of original things to come in the future, as there are original things coming out every day on the app store - to name one place.

Also, when you really get to thinking about it - no one has had a truly original idea in centuries.

I'm just rambling, that was fun

I want to see the Creator of perfect dark to see this burst into laughter then point at Perfect Dark and spit at the camera lol.

I'm not entirely sure if I'm supposed to be offended by that or not... so I'll just explain what I mean by original idea: the most original games are Pacman and Space Invaders, but even they are NOT completely original. A game about things coming from space and something shooting it? That idea's been around since the first person thought "I wonder if there's life out there?".

Pacman, a game where you move through a maze to avoid getting caught... there's hundreds of children's playground games that do that. It's not completely original.

So the Perfect Dark creator would have to agree that his game isn't completely original, because if he thought up the idea of shooting things then he's a time travelling genius.

 

[Susan Arendt]

Boy am I sick of people using the term 'AAA'.

Ok, fair enough - what would you suggest to convey the same basic idea?

 

[Idocreating]

My favorite GBA game is a licensed Astro Boy game, so I'm inclined to agree. It truly mastered a "story within a story" with branching endings and time travel based level select.

It was made by Treasure, one of the better developers out there, see Ikaruga and Gunstar Heroes.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

My favorite GBA game is a licensed Astro Boy game, so I'm inclined to agree. It truly mastered a "story within a story" with branching endings and time travel based level select.

It was made by Treasure, one of the better developers out there, see Ikaruga and Gunstar Heroes.

Well aware of that.