Game Discussions David Braben interview with Gameindustry.biz "New Frontiers: From Self-published to Third-party Publisher"

Viajero

Volunteer Moderator
Knocked up some quick notes for this:


My main take-aways were that he still doesn't like funding models that have an overt negative impact on gameplay (F2P etc), and that he agrees that Elite is unfinished ;)

I'm sure others will have theirs ;)

The actual "never finished" statement seems to be a generalization for any creative process, and it is very specific to "tweaking" and "tinkering" things:

The problem is, with any creative enterprise, something is never finished. You always want to go and tweak it. That there, I am not quite happy with, let us go and tinker.

Then he narrows down to game dev:

One of the problems in this industry is the temptation to tinker can be fatal because you will forever tinker.

He then goes into ilustrating the point with the story about Turner, the painter, allegedly breaking in to the Royal Academy to edit one of his own already finished paintings on display. And extends that same urge to Elite, which he actually confirms similarly also "on display":

The point with that is that I had it with Elite aswell, you know. You just think I wished we´d tweak this this way. Each of these tweaks makes the game better but it is diminishing rewards. And there has to come a point where you say, right, let´s ship it.

He actually suggests that describing such creative enterprises as "unfinished" due to those possible tweaks may not be very fair, and clarifies that instead the difference in the case of games is that you have an opportunity to add updates and new things. This, imo, is qualitatively very different than just "tinkering":

Saying they are unfinished is a terrible thing to do...There is that opportunity to put out updates and new things to it.
 
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The actual "never finished" statement seems to be a generalization for any creative process, and it is very specific to "tweaking" and "tinkering" things:



Then he narrows down to game dev:



He then goes into ilustrating the point with the story about Turner, the painter, allegedly breaking in to the Royal Academy to edit one of his own already finished paintings on display. And extends that same urge to Elite, which he actually confirms similarly also "on display":



He actually suggests that describing such creative enterprises as "unfinished" due to those possible tweaks may not be very fair, and clarifies that instead the difference in the case of games is that you have an opportunity to add updates and new things. This, imo, is qualitatively very different than just "tinkering":

Oh yeah, I just thought it was interesting that he introduced the term 'unfinished' at all ;)
 
They wanted to milk that interview again.


I think the white knights better move on... david braben is out in force representing his publishing business but doesn't even look at elite. Times have changed.

Oh well doesn't matter really, but thats one less argument for the nights. David Braben does not still exist.
 
I think the white knights better move on... david braben is out in force representing his publishing business but doesn't even look at elite. Times have changed.

Oh well doesn't matter really, but thats one less argument for the nights. David Braben does not still exist.
"Odyssey is our most ambitious Elite Dangerous expansion to date," said David Braben, Founder and CEO of Frontier. "Extending coverage to the super-fine scale that is needed for on-foot gameplay while maintaining the vast raw distances measured in light years, is a huge achievement by the team, and greatly extends the already rich Elite Dangerous experience. We hope you will join us to continue this journey of discovery and adventure when Elite Dangerous: Odyssey launches in early 2021."​
 
"Odyssey is our most ambitious Elite Dangerous expansion to date," said David Braben, Founder and CEO of Frontier. "Extending coverage to the super-fine scale that is needed for on-foot gameplay while maintaining the vast raw distances measured in light years, is a huge achievement by the team, and greatly extends the already rich Elite Dangerous experience. We hope you will join us to continue this journey of discovery and adventure when Elite Dangerous: Odyssey launches in early 2021."​

I missed your post with his tweet from elites 5 year anniversary.
 
They wanted to milk that interview again.


I think the white knights better move on... david braben is out in force representing his publishing business but doesn't even look at elite. Times have changed.

Oh well doesn't matter really, but thats one less argument for the nights. David Braben does not still exist.


Eh? The interview that excerpt is drawn from mentions Elite repeatedly:

 
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