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Radioactive IT Gaming Pitfalls – Part 1: The Big License dilemma
Radioactive IT Gaming Pitfalls – Part 1: The Big License dilemma | Gaming Pitfalls – Part 1: The Big License dilemma |
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| by Mike Bantick | |
| Tuesday, 08 May 2007 | |
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Big budget movies are by enlarge driven by the expected big dollar return, as such, many of the decisions surrounding the creative direction take a safe tack. If a movie project runs the risk of not connecting with a large audience or getting an unfavourable censorship rating, chances are it will be altered or canned completely. This is also true of the gaming industry where comparatively huge investments are made into the development and marketing of a new title. Generally it is accepted that if you work with a well known brand or license there will be a number of sales inherent to the “name” in its self. But if the project is not coming together as desired, there is still a huge amount of pressure to push something out the door, regardless of quality. So we see vast allocation of precious game creation resources shifted to a project to pump out an associated title for the next Shrek, or similar big screen sequel. Chances are this must meet the same project time lines of the movie else risk missing the zenith of marketability. On one hand this is fine, there is a need for people to relive the adventure of their favourite on screen hero’s, and what better way than through interactive entertainment? The problem is that increasingly we are seeing innovation and originality shelved in favour of the familiar. In a way it is easy to blame the obvious movie tie-in games, and the hype circus that follows, luckily just like the Terry Gilliam's of the movie industry, there are still people trying new gaming concepts. Independent efforts not tied to licensing or big studio restraints are free to explore a design approach never or rarely used in the past. Most prevalent on the web for the PC platform these games can sometimes hit the big-time though services such as Valve’s (Halflife) Steam service. Or simply be part of a larger, braver developer studio, hands up those awaiting Will Wrights next attempt with Spore? Console gamers may have a longer wait for innovation, with the closed aspect of their platform not providing the freedom to move as is the case with your keyboard and mouse controlled buddies. But this may change, Microsoft’s XNA, Sony’s Linux acknowledgment and the simple fact that all of the current generation consoles are web enabled means the potential for encouraging homebrew applications is there. Then there is Nintendo, Granddads of innovation, so by no means is all lost. Meanwhile, development studios cry out for more meat in their studios, more slaves to the development grindstone to work on an increased number of high profile safe projects with (hopefully) resources to spare on the un-safe, whimsical and innovative titles to delight the jaded gamer developing in all of us.Now let me have a look at that Spiderman 3 game maybe it will be great. {moscomment} |
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