GDC 08: Independent game developers say quality over quantity

With the GDC 2008 currently on-going, much news is released on games. Regarding this, independent game developers have voiced their opinions that games should be made according to gameplay quality over quantity, meaning the duration of the whole game. Read more in the full article.

 

A game needn’t be long to be considered good; a good example would be Call of Duty 4 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3) by Activision. Although, there are also games such as Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Xbox 360, PC, PS3) and Mass Effect which garnered much acclaim because of the their length in gameplay.

In GDC 08, Kellee Santiago from thatgamecompany, Jon Mak from Queasy Games, and Pekko Koskinen from Playsign voiced out that the gaming industry is insistent on rating titles based on their overall length.

Santiago said that “games are for the most part experienced and — more importantly — measured linearly.” She added that a game is graded according to its length in game time. She also pointed out that a game can also be good even if it has a short duration of gameplay. She added that:

An example is Katamari Damacy, which was a value at US$ 20. The reviews for it qualified that it was a short game, but I don’t think I’m alone when I say I logged more hours on Katamari Damacy than I did on God of War II, which I finished.

I’m not saying God of War II is better or worse than Katamari Damacy–I really like God of War II, actually–but what I’m saying is I don’t think this is an appropriate ruler anymore to measure the quality or the value of a game.

Furthermore, Santiago said, “Instead of focusing on small moment-to-moment details and more intrinsic rewards systems, we’re trying to stuff all of this content in to make it long enough.”

In addition to this, Mak noted that “It’s not about how many times you replay the game. You could play it once, and that game can stick in your head for the rest of your life. To me, that counts as replay.”

There more to come where that came from, so better keep checking out our site for more updates on the Game Developers Conference 2008.

Via Gamespot