Ben-DutkaTechnology and social media continue to have an affect on the video game industry, and one legendary designer says this is a good thing.
Specifically, Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima cites the capability of delivering "pilots" of new ideas in order to gauge gamer interest. During a recent Edge interview , Kojima said there will be a more "social aspect to game creation" and developers could use the user feedback:
"It’s possible to make many things more realistic, but that doesn’t mean you should. You have to prioritize, and that is what’s going to separate the teams that succeed from the teams that don’t. [But] I think there’s a different way of tackling this problem: something similar to a TV series, where you can use pilot episodes to test the waters before you jump completely into the project."
The MGS guru explained that these pilot episodes can be delivered digitally through various channels, and they'll let customers try out a game while it's still in production. Essentially, it seems he's talking about an early version of a demo or beta test, and Kojima says a pilot such as this could be completed within a year.
So do you think this is a good idea?
i don't usually show up right as Ben posts things to this is pretty neat. I would say, The Walking Dead's style of doing that kind of thing bothered me more than anything. I felt like chapters 1, 2, and 3 could have been chapter 1.
They were all pretty short and it wasn't like heavy rain where choices made a huge difference in something. Maybe it could work if someone like Cage did it but i don't think anyone else would be honest about the system. They would purposely cute content and put it into the next episode to get more monies.
I hope EA didn't read this, it worries me about how they would go about this. That and they would throw in microtransactions. "Wanna go to the secret area? 2.99" Or "Wanna see if you killed that enemy? Buy chapter 2.2 to find out! Only 19.99" Sounds scary doesn't it?
I think it would be a good idea as long as the game itself doesn't come out piecemeal but gamer interest in a "pilot" gets it off the ground. This is already more or less where kickstarter games are going now, they have a cool demo and people get excited.
Hell, maybe with this kind of thing we can finally voice our approval of turn-based RPG's and have somedamnbody listen to us for once. Or survival/horror for that matter. Or anything that didn't get cranked through a meatgrinder and turned into an action game.
Why not? It works for television series, so gaming is the next logical choice.
Sounds like episodic gaming.
I think this is an excellent idea.
eh, what harm could it do?
says the hare as he crosses the road…….
as long as more games dont go to TV series completely, like how the walking dead ended that really pissed me off!
you get a ending, but its not really a ending its both a ending and a new beginning.
and now we have to keep the events of the last 5 minutes of the game in our memory for a year till the new episodes come out.
so stupid!
even releasing each episode separately, and making people wait 3+ months to find out what happens.
create the whole dam game, then release it!
its so stupid to tell bits of the story, it just ruins things!
perfect example i started playing DmC and rising and i actually quite liked the story i was quite invested in it, then i had to stop playing because of other releases and i had to go on holidays for work.
now im trying to go back to them and ive got no f*cking clue what the hells going on!
create a story, and finish it then release it!
not create a story, than tell piece by piece with a month break in between!
I dont really see the point to this. Or even how this is any different from current day demo/beta tests. In fact, I don't even understand what he really means.
He is essentially saying that the first year of development could be focused on making a demo…..
I don't think any of the Publishers out there would want to fund a year of development on a demo that MAY or MAY NOT turn into an actual monetizable game.
If anything, maybe we could see beta tests for non-multiplayer games. Devs could then tweak the game for the beta feedback. Either that, or he is talking about releasing games as episodic content.
Last edited by Akuma_ on 3/12/2013 6:44:29 PM
I think this is a great idea. Something to let the gamer see if they would like the game BEFORE they buy it? Awesome! What a unique idea. All we have now are demos. Completely different.