Imagine if Sword & Sworcery EP had been out on Windows Linux Mac. Yes, no fancy number 3 in the charts –charts and grades… I think we could live without them- but the same amount of buzz on Twitter and at least, EVERYBODY would have been able to buy it and play it.

I realize that there’s this idea that the gameplay needs a specific device. But as we’re seeing more and more because we have a lot of ways to control a game available on multiple platforms –joystick, gamepad, mouse, touchpad, touchscreen, stylus, keyboard, remote, nothing- the idea doesn’t really hold up.

Magical experience that I could get on my laptop, on my couch.

I don’t really believe in the “unique experience” of a device. I played Braid on the 360 and on my laptop, it wasn’t different. The mechanics, the ambiance are still here and working. Same with Everyday Shooter. I think that you should be able to play a game using whatever you want to control it, at some extent. I don’t like the “put your finger on the screen” in a game that really doesn’t need this to be enjoyable, like Sword & Sworcery EP. It’s just a matter of creating an artificial scarcity when software can be virtually available anywhere. The scarcity is that you need an iPad to play this game. It profits Apple and nobody else.

But back to the input in games. It’s a matter of personal preferences. Some people can’t play a fighting game without an arcade stick. Some play with the “insane” Reverse Mouse setting in first person shooters (the variety of configurations from people jumping with the thumb or with the pinky is remarkable). Some people are comfortable playing a driving game on the keyboard etc. I didn’t really like Crayon Physics with the mouse but with a Wacom it’s perfect, even more than with your finger on the iPhone. Same with World of Goo. I love playing shoot’em up on a keyboard and I’m really bad with a gamepad. It’s endless.

So why would developers absolutely try to make people believe that you need the “real” deal? There’s none. It isn’t a meaningful goal for most players to quote Daniel Cook again. It’s like music or movies, even if there’s a “perfect way” to enjoy them –the bigger the better?-, people listen to mp3s in noisy environments or some watch movies on their computers. But you know what? They’re happy. It’s not that I don’t want to push them to have a better experience but if it fits for them, if it fits their lives then I’m happy that they listen to my music in any circumstance, even at a funeral with shitty headphones.

In the case of games, devices are damn expensive. Comments about game exclusivity are telling these days. People are like “dude, I can play Street Fighter IV on my netbook, why couldn’t I play your 2D game on it too? I need to buy a useless 600$ tablet to do that? Seriously? Well no then”. Some people do everything on their laptop, it’s a really convenient device, it’s quite expensive. The next digital expense will probably be a newer laptop for them, not a device that is going to cost the same price just to play a few apps and show off to their friends how cool it is. And developers I know it’s hard but learn to say no to the hype, snobbery and the platform diktat. Sword & Sworcery EP is exactly in this case, Mashable interview:

Why iOS and not PC?

I go way back with Apple. After messing around with things on the Commodore 64, I really got into art and animation on the Mac Classic with Hypercard. When Jobs got things back into gear and they launched the iPod, I really dug it. I remember thinking, “this is the form factor and these are the designers to create the mobile video game console of the future.” When they launched the iPhone, I was in the video game industry doing PS3 type stuff, but I was conscious that the iPhone was “it” — a design that would last — and their high level approach to the App Store was a revelation compared to the licensing, publishing and distribution headaches on other platforms.

I don’t see where it’s a nightmare on PC. Geez, people are not even afraid to sign up for Minecraft or worse, pay obscure strangers for items on eBay. There is no business justification. It’s just a matter of personal nostalgia mixed with grabbing attention by releasing a game exclusively on the iPad. Further in the answer:

Personally, I don’t spend any entertainment time on desktop machines or laptops, and of course, the expectations are quite different on those platforms.

Personally, I know a lot of people spending their entire entertainment time on computers. Personally, I don’t know a lot of people owning an iPad. People are like “the iPad sold 15 million units in a year” but it’s nothing compared to the amount of other devices. Laptops are selling at about 250 million units a year. Developers need to not be dependent on one platform and yet everybody falls into this trap. If now Superbrothers can’t satisfy people asking for S&S EP to be released elsewhere because of their contracts with Apple, I think it’s hurting them. Developers need to be strong.

IF YOU ARE A GAME DEVELOPER YOU NEED TO READ THIS SHIT BELOW UNTIL YOUR NOSE BLEED. THEN PRINT p 53 ON YOUR FACE.

I get the bet of selling less at a higher price within a walled garden for an overhyped device. It doesn’t last long, usually.

Fuck elitism. I want games to spread out, not to be intellectual products for rich people. If a game absolutely needs a device to be playable then fine: golf games can be kind of Wii exclusive, I understand. But if it doesn’t and that you’re snubbing me with a point & click retro-nostalgia game at 5 bucks that would still work perfectly on my laptop experience-wise, I’m like no.

ps: nothing against this game at all –I hope it makes them rich, great AudioVisual design, indie game love etc-, it’s just that it’s in the news and a perfect example of how game developers don’t think long term and are driven too much by their nostalgia (platform, art-style, theme, game mechanics, retail-like business) rather than innovation. S&S EP is a great example of execution done well but I fear that it’s going to make other young game developers believe that there’s a future in exclusivity.

There isn’t son.

The industry is facing the biggest crisis I’ve seen since I’ve been involved making games. And more, there are giant conflicts and generation problems within the crowd of game developers. I don’t need to be in SFO to see it. For now it was quite always the same: games for consoles with teams of people doing crunch time.

Now it’s much more open. We know innovation comes from little team and that it’s the blood of our activity. We know this generation of consoles –as it was predicted back in 2004-2005- while creating a need for extra specialized people with great skills, killed thousands of jobs. There’s Minecraft. There’s Angry Birds. There’s Steam. Facebook. It’s almost overwhelming.

Themes that seemed to be big.

Game Developer Conference. Fuck you “Video Game”. Fuck you.

Gamification

I don’t care at the end.  It’s good and not good at the same time but users will see how they will feel about it. This debate is useless, people will go for it or might find at some point that will and motivation are stronger when not linked to superficial and kind of meaningless rewards.

Socialization

My problem with Facebook games for now is that they’re not really interesting –I’m trying MouseHunt, meh- and make people having boring jobs something that we, as game developers, enjoy because we can use all this time to make them click and share. Games always have been inherently social and for now, I haven’t seen a game I wanted to play on Facebook. Maybe it will change but with their recent moves about in-app games or how Facebook is getting greedy by being the biggest platform in the world, we’ll see. But for sure, numbers don’t lie and people are playing a lot (half of the 500+ million people on the network). CityVille seems to be much better than the last generation of games. The social network as a platform is definitely interesting and a huge trend.

Mobile AAAfication

Good news everyone! You’re going to experience unprecedented high technology mobile games! It’s not so good news for developers as the price of entry to make games for 3DS/NGP is going to be 2 to 3 times more expensive at the very least.  Gamers can expect a shitload of ports from this generation of consoles. Not so interesting.

This is where I don’t get the game developers fanboism who should be damn concerned about these cost problems, especially after seeing what this generation did to us. Guys, are you blind? 17 years studio dies, a game selling more than a million units with layoffs a few weeks later, hello?? I’m more and more amazed at the lack of maturity on the business side which is totally connected to what we do guys. Iwata had some really true words about generalist and craftsmanship gone away in the industry and the fact that so many people today are specialized makes them forget and not care about the general aspect of game development. That’s not a good trend and I think game developers are in denial on this subject.

Distortion of realitification

Walled garden. They smile at you, promise to make a room for you and then screw you and your work, most of the time. Ask SuperMeatBoy with MS. Ask developers working for Nintendo, Facebook or Apple. Trip Hawkins warned people about that and I still can’t believe how game developers just go for the “I always wanted to make my game on the last generation of machines from my favorite manufacturer of all time”. I am inclined to make games mostly for Windows not because “I love Microsoft and started with a PC in 1991” but because it seems to me, as a developer, that it’s where I can do whatever I want, distribute it and develop easily at about no cost. Nobody, no manufacturer, no hype machine matches that. I don’t care about the aspect of fragmentation –think Minecraft and stop thinking about making complicated things that are not going to work on graphic cards with pixel shaders 1.2-, ease of development, freedom of creation should be I don’t know, praised! But no. Let’s just let these platforms fuck us hard at some point or fill our lives with endless stress we don’t need. That’s how a REAL game developer does!

Despite really nice successes like The Sims, Half Life, Garry’s Mod, Dwarf Fortress, Bejeweled and so many others, people strike for this game that will outsell Mario and GTA combined so they become the next Miyamoto on the console of their dream. There’s a ridiculous distortion of reality. For a very few games using and in need of a specific platform, a lot should be done on computers, desktops or laptops or mobile. Being platform agnostic should be the default because you should focus on your game and people playing it, FIRST. That’s still too rare. Fuck.

Indiefication

On the good side, a lot of great, polished games. More than ever and it’s awesome. But the dark side is coming now, which is elitism. Indie has never been for me just a way to describe people who are making games professionally without publishers. Nothing more or less. But of course now it’s a 1337 Club where if you haven’t been coding since the age of 4 while drinking beer or doing design from a trailer park well you’re just not indie at all. That’s not great for the community of people making games and I’m starting to see some strange tensions.

Hollywoodification

Awards, red carpet etc It’s good to see games getting media attention and all but it’s just a way for the traditional AAA business to show off its voice-over actors and receive awards so that people can forget about quality of life issues, crunching for weeks to release a game of the year. Guys remember: everybody in the industry knows who Notch is, what he looks like and that he made Minecraft. The team behind Red Dead Redemption? Nobody knows who the fuck you are. For the same amount of work, I’d rather be Notch any day.