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Is there any way to break the stranglehold of large studios and enable smaller studios to build high quality games? I loved Blizzard back when they made their O

by pm90 5y ago

Is there any way to break the stranglehold of large studios and enable smaller studios to build high quality games? I loved Blizzard back when they made their OG triad (Diablo, Warcraft, Starcraft) now it just seems indistinguishable from…EA. How can we enable more scrappy Blizzards?

cratermoon 5y ago
Are you familiar with Frost Giant Studios? https://www.frostgiant.com/ https://www.frostgiant.com/
babelfish 5y ago
Give your money to smaller studios! Check out indie gaming marketplaces like itch.io
failuser 5y ago
I think it’s easier than ever. They engines are free and even individual developers can build incredible games. The harder part might be getting enough publicity.
- ocdtrekkie 5y ago
  Even then, Epic Games will promote the heck out of a small indie launch if it's exclusive for a year. Many of the developers they've worked with are one or two person shops. The days where being buried in the bottom of Steam listings is gone, as long as you aren't insisting on launching via Steam.
- minikites 5y ago
  There are some types of games only a big studio with ample resources can make, like two current Blizzard titles: Overwatch and World of Warcraft.
  - failuser 5y ago
    I would like to see why Overwatch is so expensive. They don’t have some cutting-edge tech, it could have been a Quake or Half-Life mod and have the same exact gameplay and marginally worse graphics. Ok, there is the networking and matchmaking. Ok, they need anti-cheat and perfected loot box drop probabilities. Still, free to play South Korean shooters achieve that for way less.
    - cmorgan31 5y ago
      You have too narrow a view which seems pigeonholed on technology. The majority of expense is rarely the technical line item or budget unless it’s a pure SaaS or PaaS in the cloud play. The expense is often from headcount, marketing, sales, creative, support, legal, esport, and operational costs. You can make an AAA clone but that won’t make it Overwatch or WoW. Their brand carried them and even back in the day their cinematic trailers carried the hype.
      - failuser 5y ago
        Right, I’ve concentrated on actually making the game instead of the whole business cycle. I would expect that a small developer would spend less on GR, PR and so on.
    - minikites 5y ago
      >Ok, there is the networking and matchmaking. This is the hard part, as I see it. Maybe that's not as difficult as I think. Also, creating and recording all of the voice lines. There must be hundreds, by a large and diverse cast.
justinpombrio 5y ago
https://store.steampowered.com/tags/en/Indie/ https://store.steampowered.com/tags/en/Indie/
rapsey 5y ago
Supergiant makes really awesome and highly acclaimed games.
blibble 5y ago
there's hundreds of fun games made by smaller studios you can avoid EA, Blizzard and Ubisoft very easily these days
MontagFTB 5y ago
Runic Games (https://www.runicgames.com/ https://www.runicgames.com/) was also founded by a bunch of ex-Blizzard folk. The Torchlight series of games are great, and hold well to their Diablo-like roots.
pkaye 5y ago
Check out TheLazyPeon on YouTube who evaluates new MMORPG games all the time. Lots of great looking games coming out all the time but many of them never attract the critical mass of users to make them interesting.
indigochill 5y ago
There are plenty of high quality games from small studios. Everything Supergiant Games makes is gold, with excellent art direction and sountrack. Klei Entertainment also has a solid track record. If you're looking for the AAA cinematic aesthetic from a small team, let me introduce you to Senua's Sacrifice (back before the team that made it got bought out by Microsoft). And lest we forget, Stardew Valley was unbelievably successful and the passion project of one guy (who's even self-publishing now). Additionally, between UE, Unity, and Godot, I don't feel like it's a lack of tools holding studios back. If you wanted even more games (but why - we're already drowning in a flood of them), one of the big steps might be to provide a stable funding solution for new developers so they didn't need to play financial Russian Roulette to create their art.
cybwraith 5y ago
Check out Grim Dawn if you want that old school Diablo feel
ThrowawayR2 5y ago
> "Is there any way to break the stranglehold of large studios and enable smaller studios to build high quality games?" Game engines are now cheap/free but what deep pockets buy are more and better artwork, level design, story writing, voice acting, sound design, background music, motion capture, etc. that are the hallmarks of AAA games. While small studios can (and do!) build great games, they can't replicate that because of the cost and I don't see a way to work around that. There's no way to automate artistry.
t-writescode 5y ago
Buy indie games. That's it. Buy indie games, usually in Early Access if the game is something you like or would like. Phasmophobia has made millions. Gunfire Reborn has made millions. Small game companies are more popular than ever. There's even a game about powerwashing out right now.

by pm90 5y ago

cratermoon 5y ago

Are you familiar with Frost Giant Studios? https://www.frostgiant.com/ https://www.frostgiant.com/

babelfish 5y ago

Give your money to smaller studios! Check out indie gaming marketplaces like itch.io

failuser 5y ago

I think it’s easier than ever. They engines are free and even individual developers can build incredible games. The harder part might be getting enough publicity.

ocdtrekkie 5y ago
Even then, Epic Games will promote the heck out of a small indie launch if it's exclusive for a year. Many of the developers they've worked with are one or two person shops. The days where being buried in the bottom of Steam listings is gone, as long as you aren't insisting on launching via Steam.
minikites 5y ago
There are some types of games only a big studio with ample resources can make, like two current Blizzard titles: Overwatch and World of Warcraft.
- failuser 5y ago
  I would like to see why Overwatch is so expensive. They don’t have some cutting-edge tech, it could have been a Quake or Half-Life mod and have the same exact gameplay and marginally worse graphics. Ok, there is the networking and matchmaking. Ok, they need anti-cheat and perfected loot box drop probabilities. Still, free to play South Korean shooters achieve that for way less.
  - cmorgan31 5y ago
    You have too narrow a view which seems pigeonholed on technology. The majority of expense is rarely the technical line item or budget unless it’s a pure SaaS or PaaS in the cloud play. The expense is often from headcount, marketing, sales, creative, support, legal, esport, and operational costs. You can make an AAA clone but that won’t make it Overwatch or WoW. Their brand carried them and even back in the day their cinematic trailers carried the hype.
    - failuser 5y ago
      Right, I’ve concentrated on actually making the game instead of the whole business cycle. I would expect that a small developer would spend less on GR, PR and so on.
  - minikites 5y ago
    >Ok, there is the networking and matchmaking. This is the hard part, as I see it. Maybe that's not as difficult as I think. Also, creating and recording all of the voice lines. There must be hundreds, by a large and diverse cast.

justinpombrio 5y ago

https://store.steampowered.com/tags/en/Indie/ https://store.steampowered.com/tags/en/Indie/

rapsey 5y ago

Supergiant makes really awesome and highly acclaimed games.

blibble 5y ago

there's hundreds of fun games made by smaller studios you can avoid EA, Blizzard and Ubisoft very easily these days

MontagFTB 5y ago

Runic Games (https://www.runicgames.com/ https://www.runicgames.com/) was also founded by a bunch of ex-Blizzard folk. The Torchlight series of games are great, and hold well to their Diablo-like roots.

pkaye 5y ago

Check out TheLazyPeon on YouTube who evaluates new MMORPG games all the time. Lots of great looking games coming out all the time but many of them never attract the critical mass of users to make them interesting.

indigochill 5y ago

There are plenty of high quality games from small studios. Everything Supergiant Games makes is gold, with excellent art direction and sountrack. Klei Entertainment also has a solid track record. If you're looking for the AAA cinematic aesthetic from a small team, let me introduce you to Senua's Sacrifice (back before the team that made it got bought out by Microsoft). And lest we forget, Stardew Valley was unbelievably successful and the passion project of one guy (who's even self-publishing now). Additionally, between UE, Unity, and Godot, I don't feel like it's a lack of tools holding studios back. If you wanted even more games (but why - we're already drowning in a flood of them), one of the big steps might be to provide a stable funding solution for new developers so they didn't need to play financial Russian Roulette to create their art.

cybwraith 5y ago

Check out Grim Dawn if you want that old school Diablo feel

ThrowawayR2 5y ago

> "Is there any way to break the stranglehold of large studios and enable smaller studios to build high quality games?" Game engines are now cheap/free but what deep pockets buy are more and better artwork, level design, story writing, voice acting, sound design, background music, motion capture, etc. that are the hallmarks of AAA games. While small studios can (and do!) build great games, they can't replicate that because of the cost and I don't see a way to work around that. There's no way to automate artistry.

t-writescode 5y ago

Buy indie games. That's it. Buy indie games, usually in Early Access if the game is something you like or would like. Phasmophobia has made millions. Gunfire Reborn has made millions. Small game companies are more popular than ever. There's even a game about powerwashing out right now.