Slashdot Mirror
OddWorld Inhabitants Leaving the Gaming Industry
Via Games*Design*Art*Culture*, a link to a Hollywood reporter story breaking the news that Oddworld Inhabitants is closing up shop in the games industry. Owner Lanning is apparently going to move the company into movies and TV, as a result of sour experiences in the current gaming industry environment. From the article: "As game production costs rise, publishers want more sure bets because with rising costs come rising risks. What we see is an industry which is rapidly discouraging innovation because people don't want to take chances on more innovative types of titles."
As they talk about in the article, they've been the victim of horrible marketing. I didnt even know Stranger had come out, which it apparently has. When that's the level of people's notice of you, you can't really succeed.
The Braying and Neighing of Barnyard Animals Follows.
Probably not, since there is a lot of high quality open source programmers, but a high budget game doesn't just need programmers, it needs artists, sound effect designers, etc. etc. And those types of people aren't, in general, in the whole open source movement...
Once again, the answer lies somewhere in Internet distribution. Cut the risk-averse publisher out of the equation and get some nontraditional sources of capital, and the developer (with grassroots marketing support) is free to explore new avenues of creativity. If a game turns out to be successful through Internet distribution, then the developer can contract with a distributor to make hard copies of the game for brick-and-mortar sales.
Well there are MUDs. Been around for a while. Most of themare low on the graphics, but are involving none the less.
-- I like the cut of your thinking, young man. - me.
"And those types of people aren't, in general, in the whole open source movement..."
Well, that depends on how they're recruited. Artists etc need a portfolio to get a job. The best type of portfolio to develop is the kind where you've done work on a project. An artist that's in-between jobs or trying to break into the industry would be an ideal candidate to work on an Open Source game. That is, more or less, what I did. I did some pro-bono work for a garage game. Since there were no real deadlines for the game, I was allowed to pursue my work to the point of learning new valuable skills. When job-search time came, my work on that game almost single-handedly got me a great job.
Unfortunately, I don't think a lot of new-to-the-industry artists would see the value in this. It would take a little attitude re-alignment, but I think with a few success stories like mine, it could be done.
"Derp de derp."