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>And you can get to cash flow or fail faster. Etc. I think this right here is the key. Game development takes forever, especially if you're starting from scrat

>And you can get to cash flow or fail faster. Etc. I think this right here is the key. Game development takes forever, especially if you're starting from scratch. Shovel Knight took 2 years to make, and that was a seasoned team with lots of professional game dev experience between them. Compare that to another typical business venture that people with limited experience might to go out on a limb with, like opening a bar/restaurant. You can go from concept to having butts in seats in way less time than that. You'll have an idea about how well you're doing early, and it's also something you'll be able to iterate on to improve and keep working at for little additional cost. If your game goes out the door and is a dud, though, you're kind of fucked. If it has "good bones" you can put in some extra work and get it to good, like "No Man's Sky" or "Warframe" managed to do. But if it's just fundamentally not very fun, then you're back to square one. You can't even sell your codebase and recoup some of the sunk-cost the way you could sell your space and decor.

devonkim 7y ago
You bring up a good point that some kinds of projects simply take a great deal of time and resources to advance the industry. Millions of token indie games aren’t going to change AAA gaming any more than millions of screenplays will change Hollywood. However, innovation has a stronger chance somewhere in between with a struggling studio like Digital Extremes was 8 years ago when it comes to new business models and the dynamic between developers and players. I’m not convinced that actual gameplay innovation can happen in a AAA kind of situation though (Valve in 2005 vs Valve in 2015 are pretty different right?) no different than Hollywood coming up with original IP, but the gems are what make paying attention to any of this worthwhile to me. I over-load my investments in mid-cap stocks for this reason similarly.
- naravara 7y ago
  >no different than Hollywood coming up with original IP, but the gems are what make paying attention to any of this worthwhile to me. Hollywood used to come up with tons of original IP. One of the problems is that we just don't really have many "B movies" anymore. It's either AAA or not worth bothering with. They used to front a decent amount of cash towards experimental stuff in the hopes that one of the bets would take off. Nowadays you'll be lucky to pull that off unless you have an EXTREMELY bankable name, like Chris Nolan, who has enough of a following to get some money down. So it is with gaming. Not much in the way of "B games" out of the major studios. They seem to put all their eggs in a few baskets and hope for the best. FWIW though, after reading "Blood, Sweat, and Pixels" I'm starting to feel like where the real innovation needs to happen is in the toolkits around making the games. Seems like tons of work goes into just setting things up to where you can start doing work that's recognizably related to a final product.

devonkim 7y ago

You bring up a good point that some kinds of projects simply take a great deal of time and resources to advance the industry. Millions of token indie games aren’t going to change AAA gaming any more than millions of screenplays will change Hollywood. However, innovation has a stronger chance somewhere in between with a struggling studio like Digital Extremes was 8 years ago when it comes to new business models and the dynamic between developers and players. I’m not convinced that actual gameplay innovation can happen in a AAA kind of situation though (Valve in 2005 vs Valve in 2015 are pretty different right?) no different than Hollywood coming up with original IP, but the gems are what make paying attention to any of this worthwhile to me. I over-load my investments in mid-cap stocks for this reason similarly.

naravara 7y ago
>no different than Hollywood coming up with original IP, but the gems are what make paying attention to any of this worthwhile to me. Hollywood used to come up with tons of original IP. One of the problems is that we just don't really have many "B movies" anymore. It's either AAA or not worth bothering with. They used to front a decent amount of cash towards experimental stuff in the hopes that one of the bets would take off. Nowadays you'll be lucky to pull that off unless you have an EXTREMELY bankable name, like Chris Nolan, who has enough of a following to get some money down. So it is with gaming. Not much in the way of "B games" out of the major studios. They seem to put all their eggs in a few baskets and hope for the best. FWIW though, after reading "Blood, Sweat, and Pixels" I'm starting to feel like where the real innovation needs to happen is in the toolkits around making the games. Seems like tons of work goes into just setting things up to where you can start doing work that's recognizably related to a final product.