What is DB like as a boss?
Approachable and pretty chilled =).
Ask the Developers a question or two
- Thread starter Callum Rowley
- Start date
Approachable and pretty chilled =).
Although a bit quiet when it comes to important announcements about forthcoming releases.
How do you feel coping with such insufferable fanbase consisting mostly of old farts who keep asking questions?
Lol....Classic
Err hang on.......
How do you feel coping with such insufferable fanbase consisting mostly of old farts who keep asking questions?
Any Game Development related questions? =P
How do you feel coping with such insufferable fanbase consisting mostly of old farts who keep asking questions? ...about game development?
Funniest post in ages
However, what is the process in deciding what projects to concentrate on, i.e who decided to create lostwinds? was it a inhouse decision or a publisher request?
LostWinds is published by us, so ultimately it was our decision to develop it. I think what games we choose to develop depends on the climate of the market, and what we want to do. There will be instances where a publisher approaches us to make a game (typically a sequel to something we've already done) or we'll look to our "game of the week" forum where staff can contribute their own game designs (this is where LostWinds originated), and even in some cases begin developing a game without the pre-backing of a publisher - aka The Outsider.
I've two more questions :
Would you (Frontier) consider publishing more / all your future games yourselves or are there reasons why, when you are able to publish yourself, you'd go to another publisher ?
Second question :
What if I (Joe Public) had an idea for a game ? could I knock on Frontier's door (when you guys are in, of course !) and go "Hey I have this idea for a cool game", would you guys let me pitch it ? or would you tell me where to go (figuratively speaking) ?
(not that I have an idea for a game, but I might have in the future)
Or do you restrict your ideas input to staff only otherwise you'd be flooded with people with games ideas ?
Thanks for listening (aka reading).
Would you (Frontier) consider publishing more / all your future games yourselves or are there reasons why, when you are able to publish yourself, you'd go to another publisher ?
Second question :
What if I (Joe Public) had an idea for a game ? could I knock on Frontier's door (when you guys are in, of course !) and go "Hey I have this idea for a cool game", would you guys let me pitch it ? or would you tell me where to go (figuratively speaking) ?
(not that I have an idea for a game, but I might have in the future)
Or do you restrict your ideas input to staff only otherwise you'd be flooded with people with games ideas ?
Thanks for listening (aka reading).
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Smaller games like LostWinds are easier for us to publish ourselves because they require significantly less resource than a full boxed product. We don't need to think about the likes of creative services (for creating the boxes and box-content), large QA departments, multi-language marketing & PR (and marketing & PR departments in general), sales dept for retail etc. There is a lot more than people think that goes into publishing a game
I'm sure we'd like to move into that space eventually - especially with the rise of the availability and popularity of digital downloading, but we'll have to wait and see.
I'm not exactly sure what our policy is on letting Joe Public pitch game ideas to us - to my knowledge we only look for ideas internally, one of the perks of working in the industry and for an independent studio =)
AFAIK there are a bunch of legal reasons for not even looking at games sent in via people not working at the company. For example, if someone sent in a game which had a particular mechanic, then by chance we implement a similar mechanic in one of our games, that person could potentially sue us. Or something like that.
Either way, no we don't read game design documents sent in via people outside of the company or allow anyone outside of the company to pitch their game to us
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AFAIK there are a bunch of legal reasons for not even looking at games sent in via people not working at the company. For example, if someone sent in a game which had a particular mechanic, then by chance we implement a similar mechanic in one of our games, that person could potentially sue us. Or something like that.
Either way, no we don't read game design documents sent in via people outside of the company or allow anyone outside of the company to pitch their game to us
Thats a shame, I've got this idea about a trading game set in space......
Drat! I had an idea as well, about how The President has been assassinated, Washington DC is under martial law and ex-CIA operative John Jameson is the most wanted man alive. Framed for a crime he didn't commit, he finds himself fleeing from the might of the US Government.Thats a shame, I've got this idea about a trading game set in space......
Back to the drawing board then
A trading game set in space....that'd never sell anyway
Anyways, I have another question, what do the developers think of the impact the recession will have on the gaming industry?
Do they think it will have an adverse effect (in that people will have less money to spend on luxuries), or conversely do they think it might actually help, as in people being more willing to purchase games for a little escapism.
I don't think the recession is really helping anybody. Though the games industry apparently hasn't been hit as hard as other industries, we're still feeling it. I would categorise games as luxuries, especially in times where money is tight so for a lot of people they're probably one of the first things to go from the monthly spending budget - or more people look to purchasing pre-owned or borrowing from friends.
I may get shot and flamed out for this one but here goes lol
Q1: IF you guys decided to hit the drawing board on another RCT-like game (Not Thrillville though) Would you guys do it with Chris S or find some others to lend a hand with Ideas?
Q2: Any plans on a RCT3 DevKit if nothing ever comes to fruition with another RCT title?
Edit: Hate to add another question but...
Q3: IF AT ALL possible Would you guys flat out tell us or hint about how you created Peeps and Animals in RCT3:Wild! ?
Q1: IF you guys decided to hit the drawing board on another RCT-like game (Not Thrillville though) Would you guys do it with Chris S or find some others to lend a hand with Ideas?
Q2: Any plans on a RCT3 DevKit if nothing ever comes to fruition with another RCT title?
Edit: Hate to add another question but...
Q3: IF AT ALL possible Would you guys flat out tell us or hint about how you created Peeps and Animals in RCT3:Wild! ?
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I don't know what legalities are involved with the RollerCoaster Tycoon license - if any at all, so I'm not sure how involved Chris S is with the RCT brand.
We (Frontier) don't have anything on the cards for RCT - including releasing dev kits. But then I don't think we own the IP, so who knows what Atari might have planned for the future.
Given the success of Lost winds for you, does this mean that Frontier is looking to expand out into producing games for Xbox Live and PSN as well?
Do you think Natal and/or Move offer you a novel approach to game design so that your products would stand out from the crowd?
Or do you think a testing of the waters with a more conventional game (or even an update of an old classic such as Zarch/Virus) would suit you best?