Will Wright is flocking brilliant.

[solidius23]

Will hasnt let me down yet, im looking forward to this

[Dooz]

Good idea, but like all good ideas in games, I'll bet it'll turn out mediocre.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Uh huh...so every good idea becomes mediocre? Will Wright is one of the only developers who can take the idea of building a city or a family and making it FUN. Because of his game developing record I can actually look forward to this game being really good.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I should have said a lot. Ah well.

[Smilee]

Looks awesome, very interesting design and concept. It kinda reminds me of that movie evolution.

[Daeval]

Except that Maxis is part of EA (has been since 1997). But I think EA will give him as much freedom as he needs since he's a huge money machine.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

IF you were referring to my comment:

 

I meant the design idea behind it, rather than the game itself, was what indy developers could rejoice about. The massive wall that indy developers have to get past is volume of content - which is almost always cost prohibitive and is becoming more and more expected by gamers. Wright's idea, which seems to have been borrowed from the "demo" scene he speaks of, is one way indy developers can get past this massive wall.

 

He is owned by EA, but by promoting this idea, he is undermining the foundation of their success. If this idea were put to good use, it could help indy developers to compete with massive, big-budget conglomerates like EA. Having a huge name like Wright's promote this kind of anti-money idea is probably quite the morale boost for smaller developers.

Edited March 16, 2005 by Daeval

[Gryph]

Except that Maxis is part of EA (has been since 1997). But I think EA will give him as much freedom as he needs since he's a huge money machine.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

IF you were referring to my comment:

 

I meant the design idea behind it, rather than the game itself, was what indy developers could rejoice about. The massive wall that indy developers have to get past is volume of content - which is almost always cost prohibitive and is becoming more and more expected by gamers. Wright's idea, which seems to have been borrowed from the "demo" scene he speaks of, is one way indy developers can get past this massive wall.

 

He is owned by EA, but by promoting this idea, he is undermining the foundation of their success. If this idea were put to good use, it could help indy developers to compete with massive, big-budget conglomerates like EA. Having a huge name like Wright's promote this kind of anti-money idea is probably quite the morale boost for smaller developers.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ah yes, the concept.

 

It's unfortunate that publishers now are unwilling to tale the risk and publish original ideas such as this one. Will Wright is one of the the only developers who could be entrusted and be given funding for such a project. Without the big business his ideas would be pretty damn tough to come to fruitation. It's all a vicious cycle of crap but I'm just hoping this will not only provide a boost to small developers to try out new things but to also open publishers' eyes to this kinds of people and try new and fresh ideas.

[Daeval]

Ah yes, the concept.

 

It's unfortunate that publishers now are unwilling to tale the risk and publish original ideas such as this one. Will Wright is one of the the only developers who could be entrusted and be given funding for such a project. Without the big business his ideas would be pretty damn tough to come to fruitation.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's the beauty of this particular design concept though - it solves the largest part of the "funding" problem for people who aren't Will Wright. If an indy developer can dump a large portion of the content creation on to the end users, that could make the game a LOT cheaper to develop. They could use the extra money to persue alternative publishing routes or, if all else fails, they could offer the game to a publisher for a lot less money.

[Gryph]

Yeah but it's pretty hopeless out there. Here's a rather sad article about independant developers though it gives some hope: http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,668...tw=wn_tophead_1

 

But to stay on topic, this game will rule. I want to make a race of dildo creatures.

[Daeval]

Yeah but it's pretty hopeless out there. Here's a rather sad article about independant developers though it gives some hope: http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,668...tw=wn_tophead_1

It's not easy by any means, but it's getting easier, and quite a movement is starting to form even within the industry. Developers know that being owned by big publishing houses hurts their creativity, and very few good developers are in it purely for the money. Here's a really good rant from a panel of pros at the GDC:

http://crystaltips.typepad.com/wonderland/...the_house_.html

 

Also, that Wired article deals mostly with 4 or 5 man garage-based operations. Ideally, those guys could do ok too, but in the meantime there's a lot of decent folks between that and the big, oppressive corporations.

 

 

But to stay on topic, this game will rule. I want to make a race of dildo creatures.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You would be that guy wouldn't you? Imagine showing up on THAT planet out of the blue one day. hehehe

[Gryph]

Here's a really good rant from a panel of pros at the GDC:

http://crystaltips.typepad.com/wonderland/...the_house_.html

 

Wow, that was a great read. Thanks for that link. I agree with everything said there. Nice to see that Warren Spector was there.

[Daeval]

Here's a really good rant from a panel of pros at the GDC:

http://crystaltips.typepad.com/wonderland/...the_house_.html

 

Wow, that was a great read. Thanks for that link. I agree with everything said there. Nice to see that Warren Spector was there.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks, I liked it quite a bit too. That whole site is full of interesting things from the GDC, so poke around if you liked that rant.

[Z-Neo]

Some of the pictures are a little reminicent of the DC game 7th Cross Evolution, or something, but this game looks like it kicks the crap out of that one.

 

I am really looking forward to it, even though I am not a big fan of the Sims

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

That was the first thing that came to my mind, was 7th Cross Evolution, but if this game is half as good as I hope it will be, that will still be 10x better that 7th Cross Evolution.