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> It does seem like games, of all things, would have the potential to be at their greatest under the vision of a single author, but history has shown the opposi
by Torwald 5y ago
> It does seem like games, of all things, would have the potential to be at their greatest under the vision of a single author, but history has shown the opposite
I have to disagree with you here.
Both Civ II and Alpha Centauri were headed by a strong single author. As were both the original Civ and Civ IV which I and many others would see as the best manifestation of the game.
We can also see this outside of the Civ franchise. Think of Super Mario, Popoulous, Doom/Quacke, Sim City, Elite – just to name a few.
Great games were made by great Designers, yes, single authors. Very much akin to big movies or fantasy novels.
- prvc 5y ago>Popoulous, Doom/Quacke These examples, at least (the others are a bit outside of my knowledge), fit the pattern outlined above of having worse successor projects headed by a former team-member.
- Torwald 5y agoBy your own words Civ does not fit that pattern, because you said Civ II was the best instance. Now I am unsure what your point is.
- Deestan 5y ago> Doom/Quake Doom was a tense collaboration between Carmack and Romero. Carmack was geniusing out the engine, while Romero was pulling hard on the game atmosphere, music, level design and details like the timer that spawned Doom's speedrunning culture. Quake, which was Romero-less, was a technical masterpiece, but not a very memorable game. There was the brown level, the other brown level, and the brown level again but different. Its modding potential plus competent network code really made it a big hit.
- tome 5y ago> the timer that spawned Doom's speedrunning culture Could you elaborate on that? I'm aware of speedrunning (it's fun to watch!) but I don't know anything about "the timer".
- juanuys 5y agoQuake: Let's not forget the NIN-composed soundtrack!
- CoolGuySteve 5y agoRomero worked on Quake all the way up to release. He was the one that built and uploaded the first beta release and has talked about it extensively.
- hyperman1 5y agoThe artist of doom is a forgotten hero apart from Romero/Carmack. He had a background with nasty medical images, so the hellish deformed people were a good fit. Without it's art, doom would be a very different game.
- NittLion78 5y agoThat's Adrian Carmack (no relation to John). He made most of the characters you see in the game out of clay before they were pixelated. Can't recommend Masters of Doom enough, the book that talks about the history of id Software. That all these guys came together in the same place is a miracle in itself.
- selimthegrim 5y agoAnd in Shreveport, nonetheless. Go look at that building on Google Street View sometimes.
- NittLion78 5y agoOne of the strangest buildings I've ever seen. I wonder if it wasn't a street-level stall market or something first because now it's basically a parking lot with an unfortunate building packed under it.
- edwcross 5y agoAt least on the story front, Alpha Centauri seems to owe much more to Brian Reynolds than to Sid Meier, according to [1]. Unless you mean he was the "strong single author" there (instead of Sid Meier), I'd argue there were at least 2 strong authors. [1] https://paeantosmac.wordpress.com/2015/02/17/introduction/ https://paeantosmac.wordpress.com/2015/02/17/introduction/
- Torwald 5y agoYes, Reynolds for SMAC and Sören Johnsen for Civ4, after Civ3 was his learning step.