More games should have developer commentary.

[Looking For Alaska]

I don't know if any of you guys are losers like me, but whenever I get a movie I always watch it at least once or twice with the commentary. I enjoy it. A whole lot. Naturally, I'm the same way with games. I enjoyed all of the commentary of Left 4 Dead, Portal, etc. so of course I'd like to see it in more games.

The point I'm trying laboriously to get to is, why don't more developers do commentaries for their games, and how do you feel about in-game dev commentary? Would it be seen as unoriginal, like so much of the game industry, is because it's already been done in the games I mentioned?

 

[nova18]

Yeah, I like the insight and the stories behind the games. It's cool to hear the developers talk you through the work involved and what their favourite part is.

It can't hurt to give players the option to have commentary so more dev's should add it.

 

[forever saturday]

i absolutely loved portals commentary. im sure i would love it in other games, though im not sure what others of my games i own have commentary but if i found some i would listen to it. it gives more incentive for a second play through. it also lets you hear more about how the games we play are actually made, which is a thought that often crosses my mind when im not being shot at by zombies with guns that fire chainsaws (there isnt actually a game like that, im just making that up). i also like reading author commentary for webcomics and stuff, thats probably related.

 

[NXMT]

Definitely awesome to get an insight in games design but if it's eating at precious development time then screw it. I'll go read a developer blog or something.

 

[TheOutlander]

As long as it doesn't interfere with the game's production than I'm all in favourite of it, the Portal one was very good and worth a listen and more of the same from other dev teams would be pretty cool.

 

[Looking For Alaska]

Definitely awesome to get an insight in games design but if it's eating at precious development time then screw it. I'll go read a developer blog or something.

I have no response to this post, but I just wanted to say that your avatar made me spit out my drink in a fit of laughter.

 

[pigeon_of_doom]

Why can't it be done after the games release as DLC? Won't detract from the developers efforts to produce the game that way, and sales would determine if the idea is worthwhile.

 

[D_987]

I don't know if any of you guys are losers like me, but whenever I get a movie I always watch it at least once or twice with the commentary.

I always do that; its incredibly interesting. It would be a cool, free DLC

 

[Undeadpope]

I have never read/listened to DC for moives but for games its one of the first things I do(after playing for a respectable amount of time to know at least how things work)

 

[Iron Mal]

It is interesting to hear some of the thoughts behind the design concepts but I believe that all the droning and blithering about the graphics, physics engines, facial feature processing etc. can be left out for the simple reason of...I want to know about why I'm doing something rather than what I'm looking at (in other words, all this techno-babble strikes me as something for a seminar rather than a commentary).

 

[Enigmers]

I like developer commentary, but I always play the game normally first in case the commentary spoils anything.

 

[Good morning blues]

I really enjoy game commentary, too, although the only games I've ever played with it are the Valve ones; I'm not sure many other developers would have as interesting things to say (most of what the Valve employees say is interesting, insightful, and useful for my own games; some of it, most notably the interviews with the voice actors, are just boring and unnecessary).

Does anyone know any non-Valve games with commentary? The only one I can think of is that Chronicles of Riddick game that I never played.

 

[NXMT]

Does anyone know any non-Valve games with commentary? The only one I can think of is that Chronicles of Riddick game that I never played.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary

 

[Flour]

I'm not very fond of that idea. Maybe I'm grossly overreacting, but it kind of kills the immersion a bit.

An optional addition to the game, one that you should be able to enable/disable before you start playing kills immersion?

 

[Good morning blues]

I'm not very fond of that idea. Maybe I'm grossly overreacting, but it kind of kills the immersion a bit.

An optional addition to the game, one that you should be able to enable/disable before you start playing kills immersion?

Like I said, this is not rational, but when I see the word "developer" in the main menu, I realise that my epic adventure was in fact designed by nerds with beards and glasses (a bit like myslef), so it kills the immersion a bit.

I can understand that a game that doesn't give you the option to not have commentary nodes show up in the game could kill immersion (although I've never heard of any such game), but doesn't the fact that you're looking at a menu kind of kill the immersion, too?

 

[scnj]

I think it's a good idea in theory and could be very interesting, but I dunno that it would work outside of a game like Portal. For instance, if I'm blasting terrorists in CoD4, the developer talking about how many polygons my current gun contains could prove to be distracting.

 

[NXMT]

Like I said, this is not rational, but when I see the word "developer" in the main menu, I realise that my epic adventure was in fact designed by nerds with beards and glasses (a bit like myslef), so it kills the immersion a bit.

Wow lol. Do you have any idea how condescending this sounds?

 

[Flour]

I think it's a good idea in theory and could be very interesting, but I dunno that it would work outside of a game like Portal. For instance, if I'm blasting terrorists in CoD4, the developer talking about how many polygons my current gun contains could prove to be distracting.

It works in Half Life 2, so it should work in other shooters.

 

[Cinder Block of Oppression]

I love all of Valve's commentaries. It's awesome to see how games come to life and are perfected. I played through all of the Half-Lifes again just to listen to the commentary. I think all games should have it. (Well, it wouldn't really work in some, but whatever.)