The name of the game
- 5 Mar 07, 06:22 AM
If I were to list the following names; Lucas, Coppola, Scorsese, Hitchcock, Ford, you would know I was talking about famous film directors.
But if I were to say Kojima, Miyamoto, Molyneux, Newell, Spector and Wright, would you know I was talking about leading game developers?
Perhaps if you were immersed in gaming, you would recognise the names. But even then, would you buy a game purely on the strength of the name of the developer?
Jamil Moledina, who runs the Game Developers Conference here in San Francisco, believes we are on the verge of the rise of the celebrity developer.
These figures are so well-known, he argues, that people will buy games purely on the strength of their names.
Certainly it is true, for example, that Will Wright's forthcoming title Spore will sell on the track record of Wright himself and I would expect publisher Electronic Arts to make great play of his name in any marketing.
But do we want celebrity game developers? Is it accurate to laud one individual above the scores of others involved in the creation of a game.
Film directors have not always been seen as the ultimate creative talent in film production; for decades the director was "just another" hired hand, no different from the cinematographer or director of photography.
The film critics of the 1950s changed all that - placing directors such as Hitchcock and Truffaut on pedestals, from which few directors have ever stood down.
Game development is no different, It is of course a team process, involving scores of people with different technical and creative talents.
Leading developer Dave Perry is trying a different approach entirely - he is trying to harness the creative talent of the masses to provide the fabric and texture of the next Massively Multiplayer role playing game he is developing. It's called "crowd sourcing"; the internet-enabled trend of using the weight of numbers to solve a problem that few could solve alone.
I'll be writing about Perry's vision later this week. What is clear that, at least for the marketeers, a name is something to "hang a peg on".
So whatever the truth, expect to see a much bigger marketing push around named developers in the coming 12 months.
Do you have favourite developers? Or are franchises more important?
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Jeff Minter? ;)
Speaking of whom...
Keynote: 25 Years Of Indie Power (Jeff Minter, Llamasoft)
Monday - 10.00am - 11.00am
In his keynote, indie guru Jeff Minter (Tempest 2000, Attack Of The Mutant Camels) makes an extremely rare North American appearance to talk both about his history as an independent developer (dating all the way back to 1980!), and his design philosophy and attitude to making great looking, original indie games, before explaining his latest in-development title, Space Giraffe for Xbox 360 Live Arcade.
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I'd argue for Yoshio Sakamoto to be included in that list.
He may not be a household name, but he's the guy responsible for every game in the Metroid series bar Metroid 2, which played differently from any other Metroid.
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There are certainly some developers with better track records that others but I don't know if I support the celebrity cult status idea too much in video games. I don't know how new the idea is either. I'm reminded of titles such as American McGee's Alice (2000) and Romero/Daikatana (2000).
In video games I have noticed some studios consistantly produce great products and the results can not easily be attributed to one individual. Examples incude Blizzard, Relic and Rockstar Games.
Also, from your list you omit John Carmack, while not a game designer per se, has none the less been a person of considerable influence.
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I take the work of individual designers into consideration when buying a game.
I'm not a fan of franchises and sequels - especially from the likes of EA who persist in using the same tech over and over again, very rarely taking risks with new IP.
A balance between the two is important, combined with reading reviews and listening to what people who have played the game say - it's just like the movie industry at the end of the day.
You have good directors who make bad movies from time to time, and lame sequels with no originality.
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While the games industry does have it's auteurs I wouldn't always attribute the success of a game to a single individual.
That said it wouldn't hurt to see the names of studios used more often. It seems many people are more familiar with the most successful publishers than the most interesting development teams.
Many avid gamers are already familiar with both individual designers, successful studios and even the individual teams inside companies like Nintendo, Sega and Sony. I doubt we'll see this change, it will just be more common to see people talking about the creators of the games we play if the publishers see the value in marketing those names.
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I'd argue we're getting even more "movie culture" reaching into the gaming sphere. Everyone knows John Williams, and so too do most gamers know Martin O'Donnell or Nobuo Uematsu for their musical scores. The fame of those lending their voices to characters is still pretty limited, but enough people can recognise Jennifer Taylor to give her some degree of celebrity.
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Raphael Cecco was the first developer I knew of to become 'famous' in the gaming community.
Also don't forget Matthew Smith! - creater of Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy.
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I would personally buy anything developed by Sid Meier, who created the fantastic Civilization series of games (along with the superb Colonization and Sim Golf).
I don't think it's a new thing to buy based on developer, in fact I think it might go the other way. When games were created by Sid Meier, Geoff Crammond, David Braben or Ian Bell, you could pretty much guarantee it was almost 100% 'their baby'. These days, when a massive team works on every game and the stakes are so high, I wouldn't actually trust that a developer would be any indicator of quality.
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Well if you are at the GDC, you should come and check out the PhaseSpace Motion Capture technology, being used by NASA, Boeing, Nova Logic, Disney, and others. We are in booth, 5336 NH. Let me know if you want to try on the spandex suit. Main difference between this and the older technology is speed and resolution, and ironically lower cost.
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I think the comparison to film is apt. Personally, I'm almost never excited by a trailer in the theater, or an ad on television, or a review on the radio, or some talk I overhear. It's a combination of these things and a fair amount of research into who's behind it and what's gone into it that will buy my interest. As with any cultural product (like music or literature), game and film creators earn the trust of their fans. I put a lot of stock in who made something, be it the name of an individual or a studio. Topping the list:
-Bungie (makers of Halo)
-the team behind Ico and Shadow of the Colossus
-the team behind Katamari Damacy
Note there aren't any individuals, though I could point to certain key players in those groups.
I'm a very discerning (some would say picky) consumer when it comes to entertainment, so I ignore most marketing. However, I can say that I know many people who are swayed as much by an individual's name as by "spectacular new graphics and gameplay!".
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Gabe Newell is a game developer ?
No he's not - he's the CEO of Valve. I don't think he developed any of Valves' games - he's a Microsoft Millionaire business venturer.
Excuse my pedantry...
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