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Old 03-08-2007, 06:41 PM   #101
numble
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Join Date: Dec 2006
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Melanie68 View Post
That was a really interesting podcast with Dan Connors. I imagine he talks to some non business people after a conversation like that just to get his sanity back. But it really brings home to me how important it is to have a solid vision and plan of what you want to do, why you want to do it and exactly how you'll get it accomplished before you even decide to do it. Not just in the game development aspect but the marketing and distribution.

I hear people complain about the adventure genre here and it's the same old poor graphics, poor puzzle design, not using the latest technology but the one that gets mentioned least and ticks me off the most is game exposure and marketing. There's very little attention outside of adventure game sites, variable and poorly advertised release dates just to name a couple and Telltale has nailed both of those. Whatever you think of their games, at least give them huge kudos for bringing widespread attention back to an adventure game*.



*spoken as an admirer of people and companies with awesome vision...
Also, I think that's the most I've ever heard the word iterate used.

Edit: I want to clarify that I don't think that the improvement of other game aspects (design, writing, etc.) should be overlooked but what the hell good is it to have a 10 carat diamond of a game if it's buried in the ground where no one can see it?
Yeah, I really enjoy the few interviews we get from Dan--he always seems to give indications about the company's vision and future, how they make decisions and approach things. The traditional game development company (especially for adventures) seems to be strictly about "I need to come up with an idea, then I have a cool game concept/story, then I need to find a publisher, then after publisher commits I'm going to make the game, game is published, then repeat the cycle all over again," and all the extra stuff that Dan mentions, from building online communities, how to approach licenses differently, to distributing for other companies really indicates that they have an idea for where they want their company and games to be like in the future.
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