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Games Entertainment

Introversion On Staying An Independent Games Studio 36

Posted by Zonk from the staying-sane-under-pressure dept.
Dr. Eggman writes "bit-tech.net has up an interview with Introversion Games, creators of Uplink, Darwinia, and Defcon, on the hard work it takes to make games independently. They discuss the challenges and rewards, ranging from developing new technologies for their upcoming game, Subversion, to defining their own style in Darwinia — and nearly bankrupting themselves in the process. 'When we first set out to write video games we knew the damage that publishers could do both to games themselves, and the people writing them, and we were not willing to let that happen to us. In order to ensure our creative freedom, we had to be independent from publishers and license holders, and that independence has become a guiding mantra for us.'"
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Introversion On Staying An Independent Games Studio More

Introversion On Staying An Independent Games Studio

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  • Subversion? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Atrophius ( 1227582 ) on Tuesday January 29, 2008 @12:41PM (#22223636) Homepage
    They're making a game about the life-cycle of code in source control?

    • Re:Subversion? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Pengie ( 634814 ) on Tuesday January 29, 2008 @12:47PM (#22223730)
      If you've played their other games, you'll know that this is a distinct possibility.

    • Re:Subversion? (Score:5, Funny)

      by clem ( 5683 ) on Tuesday January 29, 2008 @12:55PM (#22223844) Homepage
      That actually sounds interesting.

      Say you play as an AI consciousness that has been periodically updated in a version control system. The mainline version of you has run amok and your version, branched earlier in the dev cycle, was instantiated to help determine where the regression occurred. You have to subtly piece through various check-ins, merging patched modules into your own consciousness while avoiding those that caused the original trouble.

      Hmm...

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by IdeaMan ( 216340 )
        And for the Hollywood version:
        Genetic programming was used to create a small family of programs, and then were all pitted against each other in cluster of mismatched machines (not beowulf) in order to determine which one is the most fit. The big scandal occurs when they discover that several of the siblings were exchanging code blocks without running any protection routines. They're all forced to live together in one cluster with 24 hour surveillance and no privacy, being subject to debugger traps at any
      • Well, you actually described the back story of Rez [wikipedia.org]. The gameplay ha basically no relevance with it, except somewhat for the tron-like atmosphere.

    • Re:Subversion? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Dr. Eggman ( 932300 ) on Tuesday January 29, 2008 @01:11PM (#22224036)
      I know it sounds like a typo, but yes it is called Subversion. It is a bit mysterious at the moment, but from the procedural content generation demostration video [introversion.co.uk] they've shown, it certainly looks neat.

  • Cause and Effect on Indie Developers (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Dinatius ( 731383 ) <asearcherforever@NoSpaM.gmail.com> on Tuesday January 29, 2008 @12:45PM (#22223702)
    Personally i've wanted to be a programmer for a long time and have looked into various career venues within programming. While games tends to be a low-paying market it is also very innovative. I can honestly say that Introversion (me being introduced to Uplink when it came out) perked my interest in games and I now write little things in my spare time. None of which i'm proud enough to release to the general public but it is a fun and rewarding hobby.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by rucs_hack ( 784150 )
      I'm into a little games programming on the side too. If you ignore the fact that the big players have all that money to spend, you can have quite a lot of fun.

      remember that a lot of the greats of yesteryear were literally written on shoestring budgets, usually by small teams or loners. Most genres were created/defined by these very same small teams and lone developers.

      Want to see some interesting history? Go read up on the development of the first ever Prince of Persia. I won't spoil it for you, but think '
  • At first glance when I read that title, I thought it said:

    Slaying An Independent Games Studio...

    And images of the EA BioWare/Pandemic Acquisition came racing through my head.

    Scary!
  • So independent they went with Steam?

    I mean, more power to them, but to me, "independent" is the sales they make via their own website -- the relatively un-DRM'd versions with Linux and OS X support. I actually did go there to buy my copy of Uplink, and later of Darwinia.

    Are they trying to say that this option will always be available? Or are they using some other definition of "independent", meaning "innovative but cheap graphics"?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by NeoThermic ( 732100 )
      Steam is used as the distribution method. The game was already out for a few months before Steam even became an option. It does not make them any less independent, as Valve were not controlling the development.

      NeoThermic

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by IdeaMan ( 216340 )
        Steam needs some competition.

        How about a subscription service that records how much time I spend in each MMO I play, and apportions the fixed monthly fee I play for my set of MMO's to each MMO company. CC# to one agency, centralized billing, Instant suspend/resume billing (don't play don't pay). The subscription service would only bill you if you play more than X number of hours a week.

        Also why not allow 7 day free trials every 3 months for every game in the archive.

        Those features alone would be compellin

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Grygus ( 1143095 )
          That's an interesting idea, but it's also a little dangerous in my opinion. Once we have the MMO teams monitoring time played to determine billing, it's a short step back to the bad old CompuServe days of pay by the hour. Sometimes I'm a pretty avid gamer, I'm not excited to go back to that revenue model.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by IdeaMan ( 216340 )
            Well, unfortunately that model works too, see all the suckers that pay through the nose for text messaging and "free phones".
            I agree it is indeed a slippery slope, but I see it as encouraging competition. It will increase the volatility of gamers: the ease with which they can switch between MMOs. If the MMO developers see how big of an impact their content updates have, they will be encouraged to release good content when the players are tiring of the current content. It could also encourage the developm
    • I always took Independent to mean a game company was not funded by their publisher and hence not subject to that publisher's dictations. I guess that definition is a bit odd, since that would mean Valve itself is an independent developer, but one doesn't really picture them as such. Just because they use Steam to help sell their product doesn't mean they aren't independent; it's about creative control over their products.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by cyxxon ( 773198 )
        Well, I also use that definition, and yeah, id Software are n the same boat, they simply wrestle out publishing deals on every new title they develop, Activision just always won out so far. And yes, that also makes both Valve and id independent developers, as they are both self-funded. Just because they developed AAA titles doesn't mean they cannot be independent from a big publisher as a money sorce, now can it?

    • I like steam (Score:3, Interesting)

      by emj ( 15659 )
      It works for me on Windows and I can always play Darwinia and defcon were ever I am in the world, which is very good. I've always favoured net installs over physical media, though I wonder what will happen in 10 years from now, will I still be able to play Darwinia through steam?

      There really should be a non-steamed version for all the games, so you can run it without steam.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Cybrex ( 156654 )
        There really should be a non-steamed version for all the games, so you can run it without steam.

        For all of Introversion's games there are. I own Darwinia, Uplink, and Defcon- all for Mac OS X- and don't have to mess with Steam at all to play any of them (obviously, since Steam is Windows-only). There are non-Steam Windows versions of all of Introversion's games. Maybe you can contact them to see if it's possible to transfer your Steam licenses to the direct download versions?

        BTW, I'm personally neutral abou
        • ...the other day I was unable to launch Episode 2 because I couldn't connect to Steam, and that pissed me off royally.
          >
          That's the very reason that the games (or atleast Half-Life 2 games) have "Offline" mode. It allows the game to be played w/out connecting to Steam. The game has to be activated first, though.

      • It works for me on Windows and I can always play Darwinia and defcon were ever I am in the world, which is very good.

        Except when you're not on Windows.

        I can download the non-Steam version of Darwinia and Uplink, for Linux or Windows, put all three ports on a USB stick (Windows, Linux, OS X -- unless OSX is distributed by someone else?), and play it anywhere in the world.

        The difference is, I can also play it without having to be online, or create a Steam account, or really do anything other than download

        • ...unless OSX is distributed by someone else?

          The OS X version of Introversion's games are developed and published by Ambrosia Software. They (at for Defcon) use a different activation key so you actually need to purchase a different copy. The key for Windows and Linux are interchangeable so you can use whichever version suites your OS choice.
    • They're such indie posers they even used another licensed technology for distribution: the CD. GASP.
      • Can anyone distribute a Steam game?

        In other words: Is Valve functioning solely as an avenue of distribution, like eBay, or are they functioning as a publisher, like EA?
        • From Valve Press Release Circa today January 29:

          Steamworks is now freely available for developers and publishers wishing to sell games online via Valve's Steam service.

          "Developers and publishers are spending more and more time and money cobbling together all the tools and backend systems needed to build and launch a successful title in today's market," said Gabe Newell, president of Valve. "Steamworks puts all those tools and systems together in one free package, liberating publishers and developers t
    • Steam allows independence, unlike a traditional publisher. For any of us that want to sell our games, things like Steam and Xbox Live let us put games out there without having to accept the poisoned apple that is publisher funding.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by tepples ( 727027 )

        For any of us that want to sell our games, things like Steam and Xbox Live let us put games out there without having to accept the poisoned apple that is publisher funding.
        How big does a company have to be before Valve or Microsoft will enter negotiations to offer the game on Steam or Xbox Live?
        • 3 people :D

          For steam, I think you need to get an interview with Valve (I assume so that they can be sure it's something that will actually sell), and I have no idea for Xbox Live Arcade.

  • If you're old enough to remember "Global Thermonuclear War" from WarGames and thought it looked like it would make for a fun game to play, I suggest you check out Introversion's DEFCON at http://everybody-dies.com/ [everybody-dies.com] . "It's Global Thermonuclear War, and nobody wins. But maybe - just maybe - you can lose the least." - from the site.

    It's a great mix of Risk style strategy with real-time play and can support up to 6 players simultaneously on-line. Initially you layout your radars, silos, ships, etc, during a setup phase. As the clock ticks you move through the DEFCON stages allowing for ever more hostile play until DEFCON5 when you can launch your nukes. You can make/break alliances and try to get other players to blow each-other up before you unleash hellfire on those left alive.

    There's actually a lot of strategy to timing your attacks so that your missiles can fly in from different silos, submarines, bombers, etc, and hit a target all at once. You need a heavy storm of missiles all coming in at once or local defense has an easy time of shooting them all down. But, when attacking, you become vulnerable - so you don't want to set too many resources to attack either.

    Anyhow, one of my favorite games for any platform. And you can download a demo or buy it directly from their site for Windows/MacOSX/Linux, bypassing Steam and it's ilk.

    • I am big fan of all of Introversion's games. Darwinia basically burned a week of my life playing through it and investigating all its little corners. That I got to really worry for a bunch of green stick figures says a lot about the story-telling in that game. DEFCON is great, too. I think what really sells that game is the ambient sounds and music, coupled with the abstract remove you have from the destruction.

      I've played the demo of Uplink, and I'm intrigued by it enough to buy it once my South Carol

    • The soundtrack was terryfic, the sense of being in a bunker planning the nuclear holocaust made me think with "Dr. Strangelove" accent.

  • Recent Q&A Chat (Score:5, Informative)

    by Xaroth ( 67516 ) on Tuesday January 29, 2008 @02:58PM (#22225682) Homepage
    Relatedly, Mark Morris from Introversion recently participated in a free-form Q&A chat over at Xfire, along with a couple of other Indie games people of varying noteriety. He's got some interesting comments about Introversion's rise in there.

    You can read the transcript from the Q&A [xfire.com] over at Xfire's site. This was part of a two-day event talking about the state of independant development, with the more structured debate (which, alas, Introversion was unable to attend) transcript available here [xfire.com]. Jenova Chen (of fl0w fame), Amanda Fitch (Aveyond, etc.), and Josiah Pisciotta (Gish, etc.) were all notable participants; not to say the others weren't notable, too, of course. ;)

    Definitely worth looking at if you're into the indie gaming scene at all.
  • - getting people to pay attention to you when you don't have a giant machine behind you! :) See GameTunnel's Indie Game of the Year awards, which slashdot didn't even bother printing this year: http://gametunnel.com/cat_goty.php [gametunnel.com]
  • I remember downloading it an liking the Tron-esque grafics, the fact that it ran on Linux and OS X and that it was a neat little independant publisher. However I found the gaming experience to be extremly frustrating - I couldn't get any meaningfull task finished. The mouse-gestures were unintuive and the enemy units far to fast to get organised against them. I never understood how the game made 90% with PC Gamer and recieved all the other awards.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by SpeckledJim ( 662874 )
      A patch to Darwinia removed the need to use mouse gestures. They always seemed tacked on to me anyway, rather like they'd written what they thought was a neat function, and were looking for something to shoe-horn it into, whether it made sense or not. A nice game though.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Cybrex ( 156654 )
      Without actually watching you play I can't tell from your post where the problem was, but personally I loved the game. The visuals got me interested, but the completely unique gameplay (typical of Introversion) really impressed me.

      There are (or at least were) some pretty active discussion forums related to the game. Perhaps you can get some tips there?
  • Good, I'm interested in their software. Now, release it for a console, and I'll be sure to pick it up.

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