People who make games - what are they all about? - The Bear and Badger

JonB

A thread about industry figures and whether they're interesting or annoying or whatever. Do you have particular 'heroes' (for want of a better word) in game design? Do you actually look out for what a particular individual is doing next? Do you give a shit about their biographies, influences etc.? What stuff have certain game makers said in the past that's of interest? Or are they all personality devoid geeks who should just shut up and get on with it?

To kick off, here's an interview with Hideo Kojima in the Guardian (part 2 due on Thursday apparently):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2012/may/23/hideo-kojima-interview-part-1

I was constantly making up stories about the things around me. I'd find myself laughing or crying at seemingly random things and people wouldn't understand why. In Japan, there are storm channels on either side of the main roads. There were so many times when I'd fall into these ditches because I was lost in stories as I was walking along. It's still dangerous for me to drive. I've driven into the gate outside my house numerous times.

Erm... ok.

Kow

God I hate interviews with developers, especially the Edge mag types, which are thinly disguised advertising for some shit game. I really don't care how the game gets made or who worked on it or how much it cost or how many flobidygons the game can render. Having said that, one in a non-game newspaper might be a bit more bearable so I might have a read of that. But he better not go on about flibbidygons.

Brooks

Spiritual decay, mostly.

g.man

As long as the people being interviewed are all completely batshit mental, I'm all for this sort of thing.

regards

g.man

afgavinstan

I love a good David Cage interview to make me lol.

Facewon

I pay some attention, loosely, to who's making what. But it's all fairly obvious stuff. I've loved halo, so I'm checking what Bungie are doing next. I also checked out, and ended up enjoying, Crimson Alliance, becuase Certain Affinity is ex bungie staff.

I had half an eye on Armored Core V for a second because of DS, but I'm glad I held off on that. I'd follow loosely what Ico/SotC dude is doing. And on occasion keep an ear out for what the french chap who did BG&E, King Kong etc does.

But unless someone posts it here, I'll not go out of my way to hear their opinion on life and such.

Skerret

I'm inspired by me. Â I like J. Blow's games, but I doubt I'd like J. Blow. Â Dunno, I'll have a think.

mistercrayon

warren Spector has gone down in my estimations since dx2

weadre

The Amusement Vision guy who used to have an Edge column. Legend. Made Monkey Ball too so double points.

Kow

There used to be a guy called Hunter S. Minson who wrote a Fear and Loathing style column in Crash. Didn't get the joke at the time but looking back at it he had imitated Thompson but replacing the drugs with food. Bit over the head of an 11 year old.

fullspectrum

Skerret, what was your recent game I wanna try it.

fullspectrum

(I could be totally wrong about you even making games, in which case never mind)

tigersgogrrr

Call Connect (iOS).

I don't give a flying fuck about individual developers unless they are exactly that. Or working on a very small team, like Skrt. That's ok. Probably.

JonB

I just wondered if there was any correlation with film directors really. I mean, Kojima is an example of a director who's personally associated with a body of work and all his games have a certain unique content and style about them that we identify with him. It's hard to imagine an MGS game that he wasn't involved with - it would immediately be a different thing.

The same can be said for some other game 'directors', although certainly not all of them. Maybe the individual auteur is less of a thing in games than in films and it's more often a communally built concept rather than a specific vision. If so, is that a good thing? I'm inclined to think a strong leading figure brings more focused and original results (even if it's Molyneaux), but I'm no expert for sure.

fullspectrum

saw it on the store, I'll give it a try

EvilRedEye

I did an interview with Skerret and I'm-not-sure-what-the-other-one-is-called-on-here if you want to use it as a aid to judging their worth as human beings.

g.man

Sadly I'm inclined to think that the relative failure of many classic gaming genres, the astronomical cost of developing a current gen title, and the increased corporate stranglehold over chasing the next shoor thing that's identical to the last big thing, has meant that gaming auteurship is on the wane.
I'm not remotely convinced this is a good thing. I'm all for artistic mental cases with a vision.

sad times

g.man

g.man

EvilRedEye wrote:

I did an interview with Skerret and I'm-not-sure-what-the-other-one-is-called-on-here if you want to use it as a aid to judging their worth as human beings.

Â
Good interview btw.

+1

g.man

Brooks

"Auteurship" has always been a tricky thing to call given the highly collaborative nature of gamecrafting, and certainly the scale of Big Industry teams and the commercial bottom lines have made that trickier but you'll still find a good deal of that bedroom coder energy in homebrew scenes various. Which of course'll tend to mean homebrew-tier cosmetic conditions and a need to be into playing on one's PC, so them's the breaks for the time being.

Rev

For the size of the industry that gaming is, it seems to have escaped the interest of the lifestyle media.

There aren't meant mainstream magazines chasing the exclusive look around Gabe Newell's home.

I don't even know If Shigeru Myamoto is married nor do I care really.

The Media still views the main games guys as the nerdy back room coders of the 80's.

I don't look out for games from designers particularly. I agree with what Facewon says.

They generally get shoved down your throat as the next amazing thing anyway before disappointment steps in, Â Haze anyone?

EvilRedEye

revelthedog wrote:

I don't even know If Shigeru Myamoto is married nor do I care really.

He has a Shetland sheepdog named Pikku and is a semi-professional dog breeder apparently. But I don't see his name on Broadway, so who cares about him, what a nobody!

bogard

I don't care about the people that make the games. Edge interviews I can stand, but when industry types invade Gametrailers' Bonus Round or Invisible Walls is usually when I stop watching.

[Deleted User]

hideo ....id read anything by him or with his name on it.Â

would love to read more by nagoshi? ( i think) him who wrote the columns about drinking whiskey and stuff in edge.

great interview red.
+1

Skerret

Nick wrote:

saw it on the store, I'll give it a try

Thank fuck, we haven't had a sale for 5 days.Â Bloody Joystiq.

edit:thanksÂ : )

Skerret

Gaming needs an Orson Welles.Â Gabe would fit the bill physically but I don't think he'd be that engaging.

JonB

That moment's probably passed already - the basic rules are already established, so no one's about to come along and shake the whole of game design up. If we're talking about someone who set in place many of its now familiar features maybe Miyamoto in his hey-day is about the closest fit, although he's still not that much of a personality and he's probably hung around too long to retain his legendary status.

Silke

I do keep an eye on Tetsuya Mizuguchi, been having a crush on him for ages. Sadly, he's still resisting.

daviedigi wrote:

would love to read more by nagoshi. him who wrote the columns about drinking whiskey and stuff in edge

How I miss those times, now he's mainly about beingÂ brown.

[Deleted User]

Silke wrote:

I do keep an eye on Tetsuya Mizuguchi, been having a crush on him for ages. Sadly, he's still resisting.

daviedigi wrote:

would love to read more by nagoshi. him who wrote the columns about drinking whiskey and stuff in edge

How I miss those times, now he's mainly about beingÂ brown.

hahaha, ffs.
i miss those times too.

weadre

g.man wrote:

Sadly I'm inclined to think that the relative failure of many classic gaming genres, the astronomical cost of developing a current gen title, and the increased corporate stranglehold over chasing the next shoor thing that's identical to the last big thing, has meant that gaming auteurship is on the wane. I'm not remotely convinced this is a good thing. I'm all for artistic mental cases with a vision. sad times g.man

Surely it's kind of the opposite happening, isn't it? The growing indie games scene in the last few years has allowed the idea of an auteur to return to gaming. Admittedly in the case of AAA titles, they will probably be increasingly designed byÂ committee, leaving the Kojimas and Uedas as a thing of the past.

JonB

Here's the second part of the Kojima interview anyway:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2012/may/24/hideo-kojima-interview-part-2

Mouldywarp

weadre wrote:

Surely it's kind of the opposite happening, isn't it? The growing indie games scene in the last few years has allowed the idea of an auteur to return to gaming. Admittedly in the case of AAA titles, they will probably be increasingly designed byÂ committee, leaving the Kojimas and Uedas as a thing of the past.

And then the game industry will be exactly like the film and music industries! Isn't that what everybody wanted?

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