Andy Phelps Proposes 'B-Sides' For Games 40
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by
Zonk
from the has-to-be-better-than-big-rigs dept.
from the has-to-be-better-than-big-rigs dept.
Andy Phelps has once again begun blogging. A recent post of his to the Corante Tech site suggests an intriguing idea: B-Sides to major commercial games. "I think there is an interesting opportunity here: stick some "B-Side" experimental games on the DVD with the big title. Little Flash games, or student games, or Internet games that haven't taken off yet. Don't advertise them on the box, sell the "big game" just like always." Thanks to Hylton Jolliffe for the submission.
Not Interested... (Score:5, Interesting)
Meh.
I believe this is what we commonly refer to as a "solution in search of a problem."
The old B-Sided records (I'm too young to remember, but my dad used to talk about them) were significant because the "B-Side" represented a unique channel of distribution. There weren't a lot of other ways for the "B-Side" content to get out. Maybe if you knew someone who worked at a radio station you could get some local distribution, but for the most part "B-Sides" presented people with something a little odd, a little interesting a little experimental, that they couldn't get elsewhere.
The kind of content being proposed here is widely available online. Not only that, but go into any computer store and look for the $5 and $10 CDs full of Master's Thesis crapfest games.
Yes, some of them are good. But most of them are junk and frankly adding them to a big retail game just gives the publishers an excuse to print "value-added!" on the box when in fact little or nothing of value has been added.
Now, don't get me wrong. This B-Side renaissance stuff is not really a bad idea. It's even kind of interesting. But I don't see how it would do anything for resurrecting "innovation in gaming" any more than new channels of distribution (e.g. the Internet) are already doing.
Companies would fear... (Score:5, Interesting)
Unlikely (Score:4, Interesting)
The chances of publishers letting you know that are tiny!.
Mod makers do most of the work that goes into a complete game (except the engine which can be freely downloaded.
If they had another medium for distributing their work they would be releasing the game for free and creating new engines and games, this would spell the end of big video game business in relatively short order as people get pissed about subscription services, ridiculously high prices, backwards distribution policies, unpleasent anti-piracy measures, adware, gamespy arcade... the list goes on.
But they don't want it (Score:5, Interesting)
But that's the thing - the industry doesn't want it. Only game designers and hardcore gamers really care about "innovation". As a game designer myself, I'd love this and heard this suggested in no less than four other places, but the truth is that it isn't really a profitable endeavor.
Why spend X dollars on a B-side that isn't neccessarily related to the A-side game at all when you could spend those X dollars to make the A-side game better (or, in most case, bigger)?
If you can figure out the answer to that which would convince an executive, I'd love to hear it so I can get to work on some B-side games.
By the way, if you are looking for a fun and innovative game, go pick up Katamari Damacy for the PS2. I just picked it up this week and it is the freshest, most original fun I've had on a console in a while - and it is twenty bucks. It gives me hope for this concept in the form of EPs (shorter, cheaper standalone games) rather than B-sides.
Extra Added Cool for the Player (Score:5, Interesting)
- The crude-but-playable prototype [dejobaan.com] from two years ago. There's a clear line of ancestry there, but it's always nice to see how things have evolved.
- A bit on how the game's focus changed, and why we incorporated building elements into it.
- A segment on the actual development process, from the initial concept to media development, coding, and refining.
- Outtakes! Maybe you'll get a chuckle seeing the early AI as it forced the multi-segmented Parade Dragon to loop in and collide with itself.
- How you can create artwork without a budget or artistic talent [synthscribe.com].
- Why I think (hope?) indie studios can earn a living.
So, the question that follows from Andy Phelps' article is: will added meta-content make an enjoyable game much better, or should developers spend their time on the game proper?____________________________ ____________________________
Inago Rage [dejobaan.com] - Bound between rooftoops and create your own 3D arenas.
Give the Stress Test [dejobaan.net] a whirl, and let us know if you enjoy it.
Similar idea (Score:4, Interesting)
I think it would be cool if id included the entire Commander Keen in the box with Doom 3 or something. It'd just be a little bonus to say "thanks for buying our game." Or if Epic put the original Unreal in with UT2k4.
The "B" side (Score:3, Interesting)
When an LP was finally released, it was really a "greatest hits"-- a collection of popular singles (like, say, "Meet The Beatles".) Now, of course, you're expected to make a full album, whether you have the material or not-- which is why most pop CDs have one or two decent songs and a lot of filler. But the labels make more selling a CD than a single, so...
Anyway... I can't see how there would be a correlation as far as games go. Games are such team efforts, requiring so much more investment in man-hours and money than recording a song, that it's just not feasible to make a "labor of love" (and who's labor of love would that be, anyway?)
Re:shmubject (Score:5, Interesting)
Unfortunately they stopped doing this a while ago for a good reason - paper, books, generally anything physical is expensive. Gone are the days when desktop publishing software would come with a 200 page manual describing the concepts of good publication design, when adventure game software would come with a 100 page color manual describing the history, culture, and civilation of the world created for the game, when operating system software would come with a dummie's guide to programming in BASIC, and teach basic programming constructs, when graphics manipulation software would come with an introduction describing how the human eye perceives color, textures, and shadows, and the history behind drawings and paintings in society.
Re:Loading... (Score:3, Interesting)
You haven't played... (Score:3, Interesting)