

What happened to innovative games? - davidtyleryork
http://altdevblogaday.com/2012/01/26/what-happened-to-innovative-games/

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ironchef
I think a lot of the indie games that have come out the in past several years
have been at least interesting and in some cases, innovative. Look at those
like world of goo, minecraft, braid, space chem, sanctum, etc.

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thegarside
The line between innovation and duplication is when someone outright copies
every aspect of your game, like Zynga did with Dream Heights.

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rexf
Nearly every game has many derivative elements, but the problem is that
Zynga's M.O. is to blatantly reproduce games. The other issue is that Zynga's
"games" are more cow clicker monetization vehicles than entertaining games.

"I don't fucking want innovation," the ex-employee recalls Pincus saying.
"You're not smarter than your competitor. Just copy what they do and do it
until you get their numbers."

<http://www.sfweekly.com/2010-09-08/news/farmvillains/?repost>

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walru
In a market where hardcore gamers know how to circumvent paying, it's
difficult to get 'gamer' games to recoup the resources that went into making
them.

Coincidentally, hardcore gamers are the types who are generally more open to
new gameplay mechanics. That's not to say you can't get a new concept through
to the masses, but typically there's only a handful of new concepts that can
be expected to gain traction a year. When you think about this in relation to
other entertainment mediums (e.g. Movies, Music) that's not too bad.

As for the rest of the game fairing public, let's call them casuals, or people
who don't typically know how to pirate. They would prefer to just play
something quick and familiar. Thus many developers begin to cater their wares
to what the public is willing to consume.

Now, to counter all this, there is real innovation happening on the mobile
platforms. It's just not being covered very well.

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davidtyleryork
True, I agree with your points. The problem with mobile as an "innovation"
platform is that it's heavily slanted towards the top. I would argue that over
50% of the app downloads come from the Top 50 list. It's really hard to break
that without a substantial paid ad campaign

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walru
I agree with your statement whole heartily, and have a some experience in the
field to back those comments as well.

Even with the weighted nature of the App Store there are still a good number
of new concepts making it through to the top each year. However the visibility
issue is, over and above even piracy, is the main problem.

I think Apple does a decent job of giving apps a chance through their
'features' program. A consistent group of individuals go there to consume new
wares each and every week. From here word of mouth can rise a good
game/concept to the top very quickly. (I wanted to mention Tiny Wings, even
that was a derivative of a flash game before it.)

I would like to Apple develop the program further. Something more along the
lines of a magazine, with humanistic features on what goes on behind the
scenes.

I know there are third party sites out there that do their best to cover
what's going on. Only a very limited number of people visit these sites, when
as compared to the whole of the community/market.

These are the problems of a new platform, and a new medium. Right now more
games miss their potential audience than hit, but some day that won't be the
case. I hope to still be making games then.

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pixie_
There will always be imitation, but to me the innovation going on right now is
staggering. Touch screens are still fairly recent, and so many games have been
created to take advantage of the new controls like fruit ninja for instance.
And it's not just big players anymore, but thanks to app markets, anybody can
publish and have friends play their games. Nintendo Wii is also fairly recent.
I spent last weekend at a party playing Just Dance with friends - something
innovative, but also just another link in the chain of gaming evolution -
PaRappa, DDR, Guitar Hero, etc.. The Sony Vita is just about to be released
and the thing has a full touch screen on it's back side. 3DS, Wii U - I still
dont get how the tablet as a controller for a console is going to work, but at
least their innovating.. and how about that minecraft innovative yet evolved
;)

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lmkg
The barrier to entry to getting a game published developed and published with
a decent chance at significant exposure is much lower than it was in the past.
More games are getting made, many more. That means more copycats. It also
means more innovation. I'm not too worried about it.

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dustingetz
innovation is hard and high risk. Franchises sell predictably. blasting out
Call Of Duty 17 is a matter of staffing a bunch of artists for less money than
you will bring in.

Same thing for movies, and books, and music, and basically every big company
business model ever.

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davidtyleryork
Too true. And it doesnt help that Call of Duty 17 made $400M in one weekend or
something crazy like that

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BornInTheUSSR
Real artists ship... and steal

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uvTwitch
Budgets.

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davidtyleryork
haha touche

