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Elixir Studios Closes Its Doors
Another development studio has closed up shop, with British company Elixir laying off staff and closing down development. Elixir has published two titles, the political sim Republic and the mad scientist strategy title Evil Genius. The cancellation of an upcoming project forced the company to make a hard decision. From the article: "I'm very proud of what all the staff at Elixir have achieved and the games we produced...We gave it everything we had but ultimately it wasn't quite enough. It seems that today's games industry no longer has room for small independent developers wanting to work on innovative and original ideas. Perhaps there is no longer any need for them."
Well, it did. Sorry. The concept was good, but the execution fell flat. Building your lair and hiring goons was cool and all, but that seemed to be the end of it. To get anything done you just placed goons on a map of the world and waited while tehy did their evil things. After a while, it became very boring and pointless.
Am I sorry to see Elixar go? Yes and no. They did not really make good games, but who knows, maybe they would have came out with something.
"It seems that today's games industry no longer has room for small independent developers wanting to work on innovative and original ideas. Perhaps there is no longer any need for them." It is quite sad how little chance small independent developers really have in today's game industry, however I don't think many would agree with saying that there's no need for them. Actually, having seen Evil Genius in Wal-Mart, it makes me wonder what the definition of a small independent developer is these days. Now what I'd consider small independent developers would be those responsible for games like Gish, Alien Hominid, or Darwinia. And, from what I heard Evil Genius was a great idea that suffered from some serious issues later on, such as trying to keep track of what your minions were doing around the world. I guess when you start working out a publishing deal even small independent developers can easily get pushed into completing and selling something that isn't necessarily 'done' in their eyes.
Dear Elixir,
Please open source your games so that your fans may continue to enjoy them, or modify and adapt them. The benefits will surely outway the remaining royalities/profits from keeping these games as commercial ventures.