GameSetLinks: Mickey Gets Some Girlie Action
Once again, a longer GameSetLinks takes a look at some of the URLs that I wanted to poke at in a little more detail - starting out with Warren Spector's future family craziness, and wandering into indie marketing and cunning achievement concepts.
Warren Spector, Meet... Disney Icons?
It's nice to see Chris Morris (formerly of CNN Money) writing about games again, and he has an article called 'Requiem For The Hardcore' on Forbes.com, which asks the simple but provocative question: "Are hardcore gamers as relevant as they have historically been in the gaming industry?"
It's a good piece, and makes some smart points. And embedded in there, there's this: "'I think people are going to be very surprised when they hear what I'm working on,' says Warren Spector, creative director of Junction Point Studios... 'I'm sure a lot of the hardcore folks are going to be up in arms and I'm really looking forward to getting into that discussion with them.'"
Oh, Warren, you're such a tease! In pondering what he might be working on, I refer interested readers to a Quartermann EGM column from early 2008: "Word is that Spector's new Disney project will be a platformer looking to compete with a certain pesky plumber. And who's big enough to take on Nintendo's star? Only the mouse himself!"
Given that Junction Point is Disney-owned, and Spector has been mentioning that his project is "in collaboration with folks from Disney Feature Animation and Pixar", I think this rumor doesn't sound completely out of wack. Very much looking forward to an announcement on this.
XNA Community, XBLA & Marketing
So, we've been discussing the line-up for 2009's Indie Games Summit at GDC, and something myself and co-organizers Matthew Wegner and Steve Swink have agreed is that we'll have at least one lecture about marketing your indie title - something that's absolutely vital, and quite foreign to the average game developer.
Former XNA community manager Dave Weller - a bit of a squeaky wheel nowadays, really - has been discussing this very problem on his LetsKillDave.com weblog, titled 'More lessons from XBLA on why XNA Community Games _won't_ make you rich' - and suggesting some solutions.
He particularly references the Gamasutra postmortem of Go! Go! Break Steady (pictured), explaining: "I'm not really talking about traditional marketing here, but am instead suggesting that word-of-mouth style marketing won't merely be optional, but will become your #1 priority when it comes to XNA Community Games."
Having buzz, building a fanbase, and getting people to remember who you are (and what your product is!) is just incredibly important on XBLA or XNA Community Games. Weller suggests that an 'XNA Micropublisher", "...a person or small company that knows how to position and promote your game", is the way things will go.
And actually, I do actually think that coolier, indie-style promo mini-companies a bit like Girlie Action for the game biz may happen. But there are certainly a lot of PR agencies already out there, and the informal and word of mouth nature of game buzz on the Internet may mean that it's down to the creators - only they can make the message genuine? Food for thought.
Achievements That Play For Keeps
GameSetWatch columnist Simon Parkin has written a neat article on his Chewing Pixels blog, pointing out some very interesting Xbox 360 achievements in Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway - angled for player retention in the longer term.
Parkin explains: "A number of the game’s achievements are dependent on the player continuing to log in to Xbox Live and play the title on a daily basis for a considerable length of time... one final achievement, ‘Remember September ‘44', rewards players with no less than 50 achievement points for simply playing the game at some point on September 17th, the anniversary of the events depicted in the game."
As Simon points out: "Gamers who want the full 1000 points on offer will have to hang on to the game for close to a year from now (and then remember to put the blasted thing on)." It's a cunning, and arguably borderline iffy ploy to get people to keep hold of their copies - but given the used market's flourishing, is it not surprising that developers and publishers might want to encourage people to not sell back to, say, GameStop.
But as I was reminded - and a commenter also notes - that Burnout Paradise's gradual, incremental expansion packs are a much more productive and positive way to guarantee people keep their retail release. Of course, the industry is moving oh so gradually to digital downloads, and by gosh, you can't trade them in, so that'll fix this particular conundrum eventually.
