I've been poking about
Raph's site, and he's got some stuff I was interested to see, so I thought I'd bring it back here to share.
Here are his comments about
this Gamasutra article on prototyping, which I found pretty damn interesting. While the ideas focus on 'simple' games, I think there are takeaway lessons for development of larger projects. If you just want to play the games, the site is
here. I haven't played these any of these games yet, but I'm DLing Tower of Goo as soon as I get done with this net session.
The other thing I wanted to note here was
Raph's essentially commentless link to
this article on the
Lost Garden blog. It suggests an alternative business model for game making based on 'regional' touring bands, vs the corporate music industry. Now, I used to know a few bands like this when I was younger, and their business models were mostly concerned with getting laid, but the Lost Garden article looks at things a bit more economically. The term he uses for the games he is talking about is 'village games', to differentiate them from the stuff pumped out in the corporate music or game model. While this isn't an entirely new idea, it does seem to me that there is more detail in this rendition than we usually get. Here are a few points which I'll discuss:
For the moment, I'm assuming that you are in it for the love of making great games and that the slow road [to profitability] is just as good. In that case, you need to consider how to fund your village game.
If you aren't working for love, I'm not sure there is enough money to make the world not suck. And, as he points out later, the 'big money' from corporate work is pretty much a fraud.
The long life of a village game occurs because it is highly insulated from direct competition.
Which is one concern I have with this model. If the indie small game environment proliferates, then will it choke on its own waste?
In short, here is a unique business model that provide low entry barriers, low competition, easy access to seed capital and copious amounts of creative freedom. The money is good, but not great. However, the chance to build your very own profitable game company is nearly priceless. That is a dream that was crushed out of most developers long ago. The basic business drivers of small numbers of highly profitable customers make it all possible.
If you don't want to read his article, I'd suggest that this is the takeaway.
Hundreds of bands have tried to make a living touring their local cities, playing gigs and selling t-shirts. Most fail, but a few succeed because it is a real business model that provides a solid service to fans of live music. It is a hard life, but you are your own person and you get to do something that you love.
It is worth noting that of the various bands I knew when I was young, none are still in existence, and few ever made more than a marginal living. However, all of them had a very good time while it lasted.
I'd also point out that I seen this model fail people in the PBeM era of gaming. Sure, there are some who have prospered, but more who did not. I would be very interested if there were some way to figure the success rate associated with this model in the past.
Anyhow, I hope you find some of this of some interest.
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