[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Music Industry teaching the Game Industry(Was: A rant for Vanguard)

[Michael Sellers]

Christopher Allen wrote:
> Nick Koranda wrote:
> > I think the game design process is so expensive now a days, at least
> > for the "AAA" games that you cant mimic the music industries style of
> > creation.  I would imagine that the game industry in part would do
> > well to find ways to place the creation process in the hands of
> > individuals or small groups and let lots of "bands" (dev groups)
> > create their "albums" (small MOGs) and let the playing community
> > decide which are big hits.

If you'll excuse the old Billy Joel reference, his lyrics came to mind when
I read this (didn't see the original post, apologies):

"I am the entertainer, I've come to do my show
You've heard my latest single, it's been on the radio
It took me years to write that song, they were the best years of my life
It was a beautiful song, but it ran too long
If you're gonna have a hit, they gotta make it fit
So they cut it down to three-oh-five."

>From folks I know in the music industry, it is if anything more brutal to
new ideas and bands than the game industry (I know at least one person who
fled the music industry for this reason).  

> Skotos has tried the "band" model of small game development for over 6
> years, with very mixed results. The problem is that it still takes a lot 
> of work to make a game, and once completed, small games rarely have the 
> critical mass to become profitable even when quite innovative. And our 
> games are quite easy and inexpensive to create as they are web graphics 
> and text, no 3D graphics.
> 
> I think to date that over a dozen "bands" have gone through our Skotos-
> Seven development process, and only three have shipped - Lovecraft Country
> (horror roleplaying), Ironclaw, and the Lazarus Project. A fourth game 
> close to shipping, Mortalis Victus, doing an alpha and a beta, but the 
> team imploded before being able to get to gold. BTW, note that of those 
> only Lazarus Project is its own brand -- all the others are licensed from 
> RPG games.

I'd be very interested in your "lessons learned" from this process (could be
a good Game Developer article too!).  I doubt there are generalizations like
"licensed RPGs are always better" -- though I can see how using a licensed
product provides useful bounds on the design space.

But your comment seems to highlight the incredible importance of team
cohesion and maturity (also a problem with bands in the music industry).
This likely eclipses a lot else in new/young/startup teams, where the
various buffers found in a professional organization aren't around to soften
sharp differences that can cripple a project.

Second to that I'd say capitalization and design scope are of high
importance in terms of creating a successful game.  What else would you add?

Mike Sellers
Online Alchemy