God Save The UK Developer?

Thanks to TotalGames.net for its GamesTM-reprinted feature on the alleged fall of the British game developer. The piece argues: "It all used to be so different in the Eighties. Ignoring any rose-tinted arguments about whether games back then were better, worse or more peanut butter-flavoured, the inarguable statement can be made that they were certainly more British." But now, even though "the most popular game of this new decade - Grand Theft Auto - is British, despite all of Rockstar's attempts to hide the fact", the piece laments the lack of distinctive UK games with Python-esque worldwide impact: "Of course, it doesn't cost £5 million to pick up a pen and start writing a sketch about parrots, but surely the odd very obviously British game could be smuggled through?"

Comments

The Galapagos of game developers

[0x0d0a]

IMO, there are very few US developers (Origin at their prime, Looking Glass Studios) who can compete with the best of Britain in terms of innovation.

I really wonder. Is it because the British just happen to come up with a lot of original ideas? While it's not impossible, I'm a little dubious. I wonder if perhaps it's because you have a lot of developers that are physically isolated from the mass of US and Japanese developers, and have a chance to go their own ways.

Perhaps the real answer to game diversity is to find a couple of islands, dump game developers on them without access to the outside world for a couple of years, and see what new things spring up. :-)

Knowledge sharing is good, as it allows building upon past mistakes and god ideas. However, I claim that what is "apparently better" may not always actually be better. Someone may have to make an apparently non-ideal mental path to arrive at a better final solution. The problem is that if there are lots of ideas floating around that are "apparently better" and lead someone away from finding alternate, potentially better solutions.

Every time I see a game developer say "Has $FANCY_WELL_SELLING_GAME-style $FEATURE" on a new game's featurelist, I've seen a developer not run out and come up with a potentially better solution.

Oh, well. Honestly, people complain about the lack of innovation in games, but I can't help but think that things are better now than in the console days of the NES/SNES. Man, there were enough cloned platform games out there to choke a horse...

Re:The Galapagos of game developers

[JonnyCalcutta]

I wonder if perhaps it's because you have a lot of developers that are physically isolated from the mass of US and Japanese developers, and have a chance to go their own ways

I'm sorry, but in the UK people are actually aware that a whole world exists outside their borders.
In fact taking your suggestion and reversing it creates a more likely suggestion - that its the UK's openness to the rest of the world that creates a melting pot of original ideas. Whereas the US and Japan, in their competition to determine who can be more isolationist, tend to follow the same old well worn pathways.