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Tim Schafer Talks Psychonauts Originality, Dialog, Release
Thanks to GameSpot for its interview with Double Fine founder and Psychonauts creator Tim Schafer, following the game's split with Microsoft and subsequent re-signing with Majesco. Schafer, best known for "work on Day of The Tentacle, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango" at LucasArts, discusses originality ("One of the good things about the state of the games industry right now is that it's incredibly easy to be original. I mean, if you released a game these days that didn't have any army guys in it people would freak out. 'Omg. Where did they get the idea to not use army guys? Are they taking drugs?'"), shaping Psychonauts' story ("I still write most of the dialog. I had some help this time around from Erik Wolpaw from Old Man Murray."), and the state of the game ("We've got a few levels at beta right now, some others at alpha, others somewhere in between, and a new level that we're doing now. We're looking at an early- to mid-2005 release.")
It's not the originality that sunk that game - it's the fact that the game oozed with lameness.
Not that Billy Hatcher was "original" in any sense, except the "it's not a sequel" sense.
Plus, it's those big games that give publishers the money to make Billy Hatcher games. Complain about the big titles and make them go away, and you lose your Billy Hatchers too. It works that way in movies. It works that way in games. Every time someone makes a post like this, this fact has to be re-explained.
No one wants to take a risk any more because the industry is no longer about the games. It's about the money
Perhaps you can refresh me of when, exactly, the industry was about the games, not the money. I'm pretty young, so my memory only goes back to the Atari 2600, but it was quite definitely about the money back then. Perhaps you're thinking about the glory days of Pong or the Magnavox Odyssey?
No one wants to take a risk any more because the industry is no longer about the games. It's about the money, if you get a format (FF, FPS games) you can make endeless sequals and be 99% sure of getting your money and a bit more back.
Two words: Nintendo DS.
And you're still going to tell me nobody wants to take a risk or try anything new?
Majesco also has Guilty Gear X2 #RELOAD for Xbox, mind you.
Also, I fail to see how this has anything to do with the company's future publishing business.
That's like saying in 1997 "Microsoft, make games? Like what, Solitaire and Hearts?" And then they break out Ensemble Studios and corner the RTS market. Now they've got an undeniably strong PC game house and a half decent console business, too.
Majesco, like all companies, is looking to make money. They re-evaluate markets and business practices. And right now they are on the move . They've got a lot of money from this GBA video cart business and they're looking to spend it to buy into the big publisher business. If you RTFA you'd notice Tim mentions Majesco is looking to expand this year, and with that money I bet they are.
Anyway, I would think it would be pretty shallow of someone to judge a title based on its publisher. Developer, I could understand, but a publisher is just someone that stamps the discs and takes a cut of the profit. What does that have to do with the actual game?