If there’s a part that always disappear in the computer game history, it’s the European scene. Americans don’t know anything about it, Japan the same. However a couple gems from the old continent like the famous Another World or Flashback changed the game and influenced tons of renowned game designers.
People have forgotten things like Ocean Software fighting Imagine Software which spawned Psygnosis, a legendary studio that created WipeOut and published Lemmings, made by DMA Design aka, Rockstar North aka the OG GTA developers. Digital Illusions making pinball games and ending up being DICE Sweden, creating Mirror’s Edge. Frederic Raynal and Alone in the Dark, Capcom says thank you very much. Lankhor capable of making a blazing fast Vroom and a slow paced non-linear adventure game like Maupiti Island at the same time, as Coktel Vision was capable of making an adventure game like Bargon Attack and ESS (European Space Simulator).
From 1985 to 1995 Europe produced tons of games, some being groundbreaking like Kick-Off by Anco Software, a soccer game where the ball wasn’t glued to players or Captain Blood by ERE Informatique (future Cryo), first person adventure game where you would try to communicate with aliens through icons or Starglider, a Starfox-like shooter in 3D seven years before Nintendo’s IP (Starglider, developed by Argonaut which is the company that will create the Super FX chip powering Starfox). In that period of time we went from 8 to 16bit. At that time optimism was high. Computer games were a couple years old and people thought it was for kids. In that decade developers were dreaming of maturity, already. Barbarian was inspired by Frank Frazetta’s work, not He-Man. I guess we always had that complex that play != kids. We have a lot of manchildren now I’m not sure we wanted that but anyway.
Germany is completely absent, which is weird for such a big force and big country in Europe. Well during the 90s Germany didn’t exist, culturally. We were not talking about German board games –huge there- or their love for simulations like the Settlers. All I could hear was how they were censoring blood in beat’em all and making Doom illegal. I wish I had had the internet and not have to listen to the media at that time.
Sports and cars games were immensely popular in that decade. But only in Europe we got to get games that were just plain weird and often bad. Some were too connected to one’s culture like most French games of that time. Some were just honest copies of something better (like Zool vs Sonic). But they had character when today’s games are mostly good, but all feel the same.
Bad games, wrong audience, US/Japan killing it, total lack of funding compared to US/Japan, massive hardware shift (N64/DC/PS1): the European gamedev scene collapse had to happen. Nonetheless, learn about it. The best ideas and the best code has been produced in this weird melting pot of different countries and cultures that is Europe.
One reply on “European Game History”
From a french point of view (expat) that used to work in the field
When a game could be made alone or in a very small team, France (and some countries like sweden) thrived because it had:
– a very strong education system
– the economy that allows to give kids access to a computer
– a creative touch
– plenty of free time
– a relatively low barrier of entry in terms of knowledge
When game development became industrial, requiring big teams with various specialized skills, huge funding and strong organizational ability, France began to fall down, because it has notoriously a problem with entrepreneurship, management and risk taking.
Also I have the impression that french students have dreams and energy, while the french employment system transforms most of them into a passive entity. Maybe too much protection, not enough selection (you stick with the same team forever). Maybe passion crushing management. Maybe simply family. I see too many people that stopped learning not long after they scored their first job.
Gamedev in the long run requires constant learning, constant un-learning, constant self-challenging. France is not shaped for that. Hence the brain drain in direction of the US.
Where I’m surprised is that mobile gaming could have been an opportunity to see again some french “garage teams” emerge, as you can again be a “do it all” on a small platform and I don’t see much emerging.
Could it be because Android and IOS development require far more knowledge to begin drawing a pixel than you needed at the age of the Atari and Amiga.
Could it be that the expectations of challenges and salary attract too quick the pro-active ones around the SF bay.
Or could it be that while we were beginning to code out of boredom, kids now have so many distractions, mobile games, TV channels, that initiatives can mostly only happen at work now, and France at work … leadership … management … risk taking … we closed the loop. :)