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The illusion of adventure games star developers?

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Advie - 23 August 2020 01:20 PM

who is that Jonathan Blow in the adventure gaming scene anyway, is there something ami missing, didn’t he only make that game The Witness, what else is his connection to the genre?

Sigh…

It’s about STEVE MERETZKY and BOB BATES and BRIAN MORIARTY. I know, I know… the names of these great game developers don’t mean anything to you. So move on.

Advie - 23 August 2020 01:50 PM

how funny to see this, not in LOL way, but it would have been if Brain accepted, and a career-ending story as well. front page.

I read this 3 times and I still don’t understand it. Career-ending??

     

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I’d like to jump in here and answer the original post with some thoughts.

First, I think the name recognition thing is very strange.  I’m not big into following one artist of any type.  I do pay attention to see what they will do next, but sometimes that expectation hinders the art itself.  Some of you may have seen me ranting about AI the Somnium Files, and that was the case there.  I knew the director was capable of, and I was ultimately disappointed.

Also, I think in terms of gaming, the Williams’ and the Jensens, and the Coles and Gilberts etc, for some of us they were the first names attached to game design or direction at ALL.

Back in the day some games didn’t have credits at all, or they’d just said “Humbug is developed by Graham Cluely” although… who the hell is graham cluely!?

I think it instantly lost some of the effect when companies tried to leverage the name recognition to increase sales.  (I’m look at you Sierra, “Roberta Williams’ Laura Bow in Dagger of Amon Ra”, or even phantasmagoria II, which I really like, but its connection to phantas 1 is just kind of shoehorned in)

Because I’ve not been a long time adventure gamer, I tend to recognize board game designers like Bruno Cathala and Matt Leacock or musicians. 

I’m with the original post really.  I think it IS an illusion.  These designers and directors are (in my eyes) brilliant creative types with a good deal of support behind them at their apex, but they say lightning don’t strike twice, or at the very least, it’s tough to replicate or “catch in a bottle”.

The radiohead example was a good example too (although I’d argue In Rainbows is possibly better than the bends, yeah I went there)

And then also nostalgia is blinding and times have changed.

Back then to be a game designer or director was some-what novel.  Probably at Thanksgiving, these game designers were getting pressured by their family to “get a real job.”

But also as a much younger kid, I had all the time in the world to read magazines and articles and check for updates for an upcoming games project, but now I’m inundated with media options, and it’s hard for things to stand out in the same way as back then.

I feel like sometimes when these gaming royalty come back to us in the form of kickstarter, it’s a combination of the fact that THAT PERSON, the developer has changed, as well as their audience has changed, and the standards of the industry has changed.

     
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karlok - 23 August 2020 01:50 PM

how funny to see this, not in LOL way, but it would have been if Brain accepted, and a career-ending story as well. front page.

I read this 3 times and I still don’t understand it. Career-ending??

i mean to end someone’s career. was it wrongly said ‘Career-ending’? hope not so wrong that is embarrassing.

and btw its a joke anyway, on leaked emails and social networks.

     
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@Advie: You put your words in my mouth. I’d like to be quoted correctly.

     

See you around, wolf. Nerissa

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tell it to the admins.
8 years and I can’t get to be quite efficient with this tag system here.

     
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Celebreon - 23 August 2020 02:40 PM

Back in the day some games didn’t have credits at all, or they’d just said “Humbug is developed by Graham Cluely” although… who the hell is graham cluely!?

I think it instantly lost some of the effect when companies tried to leverage the name recognition to increase sales.  (I’m look at you Sierra, “Roberta Williams’ Laura Bow in Dagger of Amon Ra”, or even phantasmagoria II, which I really like, but its connection to phantas 1 is just kind of shoehorned in)

Some games had lead developer’s name printed on the box front cover already in the 80’s.

Especially Geoff Crammond and Sid Meier made a brand of themselves, even more so during later decades.

Having said that, if you look at (some) releases of the first King’s Quest, you can see Roberta Williams printed on the cover, so they weren’t trying to keep her anonymous for sure.

     
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Back then, Sid Meier’s name on a box was a good reason to buy a game. He was a great designer. Now it’s like.. “Sid Meier’s Civilization XIII!!” Even though he hasn’t even heard of the game.

     
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I did a poor job making my point.

I wasn’t saying there were no known game developers or designers as you pointed out, sid meier, maybe even will wright too, just that they were more rare than other kinds of artists to know their name at least. 

My understanding was that back then, EA made a big deal of the box art and developers, hence the name “Electronic Arts” treating them like artists.  I know it existed, but the legendary developers were rare, and the exception, not the rule so to speak.

     
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Advie - 23 August 2020 05:45 PM

tell it to the admins.
8 years and I can’t get to be quite efficient with this tag system here.

Oh dear! Poor Advie… I’m so sorry, I had no idea!

 

     

See you around, wolf. Nerissa

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I recently learned that the “PlayerUnknown” in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, the 5th best selling game of all time, was an online gamer and relatively inexperienced mod designer of maps for military shooters.

Which is slightly confusing to me, that his name can be put on a title and it can reach such huge sales, but I can only guess that fame no longer exists in creating gripping stories and more in the realms of being a popular streamer, or creator of multiplayer tools and maps others can use.

I don’t think we’ll ever again see a LSL game titled “Al Lowe’s Leisure Suit Larry in..” The days of caring about someone who created a funny AG character are long gone, and I think Advie is right that the Kickstarter craze proved these artists(?) totally failed to live up to expectations.

     
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Luhr28 - 24 August 2020 01:05 AM

I recently learned that the “PlayerUnknown” in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, the 5th best selling game of all time, was an online gamer and relatively inexperienced mod designer of maps for military shooters.

Which is slightly confusing to me, that his name can be put on a title and it can reach such huge sales, but I can only guess that fame no longer exists in creating gripping stories and more in the realms of being a popular streamer, or creator of multiplayer tools and maps others can use.

That’s how it goes.

Angry Video Game Nerd is another example of that. Well, at least having a name on the game, I’m not sure how much those games actually sold.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angry_Video_Game_Nerd

     
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a few posts from the top of the page made really wonder if members here on the thread not remembering the 80s and 90s well enough or were they young to really know about.

if Ken having his wife Roberta’s on a game’s box its because he can, and want to, as how he always is until even today, with the Netflix movie giving her all the credits (of creativity)

1st of all, game’s market had to emerge as a real established market that can take the hardware’s place, that ran thru the 80s, and was the only thing that mattered then,  what the companies or market cared for, also all the people craved for, even before they really knew much of what they can do with it ..


with all the 80s releases and the beginning of computer gaming, in general, there wasn’t much attention to software yet, not mentioning adventure games (devs), the idea of computers at the beginning was still so baffling for people, and the market itself wasn’t ready yet for bringing gaming into the front, there was just the crazy heavy stuff, with bulk prices of computers and hardware ready to be sold or shipped, as many stores and venues were still learning about the stuff they are selling yet.

near the end of 80s as much as there were enough games made by then for PC, the market was still all over the hardware, the computers sales which ran on Dos then, the scene was getting about familiar but with all of the crazy silly talk then of magazines and TVs about the revolution and the tech evolution of those computers, about how and what would they be like/doing by the year 2000, LOL.


by 91, Microsoft had made tons of cooperations with gaming companies, but even tho, those cooperations were more about some hardware being pushed in with, and tho by then KQ5 was already record number of half-million CDs sold, the first of this kind, only 30millions of the 250 living in the USA by then had afforded to get themselves a computer. a high-end computer cost 3.500USD, a low end was around 750$ but only ran Dos.

that shift took the market by storm when Windows 3.1 was out also by 92, the stores and venues where on every street, and sales of computers suggested that crazy part had ran its crazy course and now was the craziest of all, the intensive evolution of multimedia hardware was going on, it seemed as id a new thing is on the market each and every hour to the next; the sound cards, faster Cd-Rom, and graphics card, and then again new versions of all what mentioned, some never-ending stuff that you needed to run this or that, the people were trying at best to keep up with all those crazy upgrades, this was exactly the tipping point, and then devs would be starting having their enough recognition, mostly those who were on since the last decade.


when gamers wonder of the silly 100USD for a game back then, i think no one knew how much or anything about the market strategies, companies use for new* inventions (if you like) these new products of the 80s and 90s were like a breakthrough for everyone, it was more like pricing some stuff that was never really priced before or had any kind of reference.
with the fancy fully boxed game with 4 CD and whatnot, and the shift from the hardware market bulk money to this newly established software market for games and programs, encouraged the developers to go that high up, at least for ground guessing? but seriously at that time, no one complained, people were still baffled by everything around computers, they were even after that long while considered something new. it was only 10-20 years ago the word computers came into sentences that held also words like NASA or some high profile government’s shit.

     
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On another forum where a fan of Lucasfilm games posted high-resolution box scans for those who wanted to make posters out of them, made several different version of them, including ones that removed all the extra text, like Ron Gilbert’s name from the title. Gilbert took a minor offence of that, as he stated they had to struggle hard for Lucasfilm to actually approve the inclusion of the names on the box. He relented when the creator said he meant no offence by it, as they were meant for those who just wanted the fantastic art by Purcell as clear as possible.

Sierra, on the other hand, was, as far I’ve gathered, more of a strong believer in names of the people behind the games, hence they were more upfront on slapping names on the boxes, that’s why Ken Williams went after Darryl F. Gates, as he was a big name. It didn’t really matter if that big-name actually did anything else than put his name on the box.

That did lead into games, where the main designers were labelled to be Al Lowe or some other big name when the actual design was done by Josh Mandel, Lorelei Shannon or some other less known name (at least for the time).

I think, especially when we talk about modern AAA games, the lead designer is just another cog in the machine. The games themselves are so big, that it’s almost impossible for them to be results of a singular vision. On the indie side, it’s more of a different thing, like with Lucas Pope for example. Obra Dinn is clearly a product of a designer with a vision that doesn’t deviate from it.

     
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just the perfect place and time to share,
gotta watch this video of kids reacting to an old Computer with windows 95 OP, fabulous!

     

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I don’t know… out of those few “star” game designers I knew back in 90s, I still really like Tim Schafer’s Double Fine company. I love what they are doing. Psychonauts was pure brilliance, I also liked Costume Quest and Knights and Bikes (they were just publisher for that one)... and for what is worth, I liked Broken Age better than Full Throttle, which was a complete disappointment for me back in the days.

Also, as somebody else mentioned, Ron Gilbert did it again with fantastic Thimbleweed Park.

     

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