In part two of the interview, Cat talks to Eitan Glinert, Fire Hose Games Fire Chief, about VR, the accelerator program that incubates indies, and gauche money stuff.
CAT: What are your thoughts about VR? And developing for Oculus?
EITAN: I was skeptical until I tried out the Valve test kits, and they converted me to a true believer. I still think we're still a year or two away from VR really penetrating the marketplace, but I think that by the later part of this decade we'll be seeing some really incredible VR games that will blow the current stuff out of the water. And I'll definitely want to make one or two of those games!
CAT: What does being an independent developer mean to you? And what do you think of the current indie scene?
EITAN: Indie to me means that you aren't getting paid to make your game, and that you're risking your own skin to create the game you're working on. I don't like the other definitions of indie because it gets bullshitty fast when you try to say who is and who isn't indie.
I think that the current indie scene is both fantastic and terrifying. It's fantastic because I've never seen more innovation in games, and I love playing games that feel genuinely creative and original. The quality of indie games feels like it's going up too. It's terrifying because I think it's a bit of a gold rush, with tons of people rushing to get "into" indie gaming, only to discover that it's incredibly hard to be successful.
CAT: Can you talk about the financial realities of being independent? I know that after the release of Slam Bolt Scrappers, things weren't always easy.
EITAN:As a lot of folks know it's very tough to be indie. Making video games as an indie has become something of a gold rush, there are a ton of aspiring developers flooding the market for attention, which makes it even harder for the average indie to make a buck. People who want to make an indie game need to have a plan nowadays beyond just "I'll spend a few months and make a great game" if they want to have any chance of success. You asked about Slam Bolt Scrappers, that was a sad story for us. We bet a lot on the game and had a lot of buzz around it going into launch. However it really underperformed, especially on PS3 due to the hack which caused the store to go offline for 2 months right after we launched. It even led to layoffs here at Fire Hose. That's the sad truth about indie development, usually it's not nearly as glamorous as you'd hope and there's a lot of failure!
CAT:Talk a bit about your accelerator program?
EITAN: Only because you asked me so nicely :) Our accelerator program is designed to help mitigate the gold rush problems I mentioned above for developers that work with us. The core idea is that talented developers work at Fire Hose with us on a daily basis and we help them make their game a reality, providing minimal financial support, networking help and guidance, and the resources necessary to finish the game. Then when the game comes out we take a cut of the royalties. It's different from traditional publishing in that we actually work in house with the developers, and we're developers ourselves!
CAT:Is it the first of its kind - why *didn’t* this exist before? And why were you the folks to notice and do something about it?
EITAN: Nowadays there are more people doing this sort of thing so it's not quite as rare as it was when we started a year ago. At the time I got the idea from the work I had done co-founding the Indie Megabooth - I was amazed at seeing what indies were capable of doing when they banded together and worked towards a common goal. I figured we could go the next logical step and actually help people make games, and that's how the idea was born!
CAT:And how do you go about funding the accelerator program, what has that been like?
EITAN:We're funding the accelerator with our own money, and now we're using Kickstarter to get our first accelerator game (Catlateral Damage) off the ground. I've been trying to raise investment money to bring on more teams, we'll see how that goes. If it comes down to it we'll just bootstrap the entire program with proceeds from our games and contract work.
CAT:Is this the future of Fire Hose Games? Will there be “Fire Hose” games or are you transitioning to solely incubating?
EITAN: That's a great question! I suspect we'll do both? I don't see us not making our own games in the future, and we're definitely going to be doing the accelerator. So a little of both I guess!
Day 6 | Fire Hose Games
"The Arad-based (Romania) indie games developer Predict Edumedia are today very happy and excited to announce that their turn-based roguelike/dungeon-crawler/RPG "ARHAEKON", is coming to PC via Steam Early Access in Q2 2024." - Jonas Ek, TGG.
PlayStation tweets: "Helldivers fans -- we’ve heard your feedback on the Helldivers 2 account linking update. The May 6 update, which would have required Steam and PlayStation Network account linking for new players and for current players beginning May 30, will not be moving forward.
We’re still learning what is best for PC players and your feedback has been invaluable. Thanks again for your continued support of Helldivers 2 and we’ll keep you updated on future plans."
Now, will gamers take all this fervor and aim it at the likes of EA, Ubisoft, Take2, and others who have way more invasive and problem-causing apps for Steam games?
Sony is like a whipping boy for the industry and it's just lame at this point. This is like my Activision account I use for Call of Duty. I'm not a 'fan'' of Activision but it's free and it comes in handy. The PSN account would come handy if they decide to do cross saves and I'm sure some other stuff too. I have an account for practically everything, including this site. I need a Microsoft account to play some PS5 games. No one has been able to explain what the big problem with a PSN account was.
They dont want one because they cant trust them with all the times Sony got hacked which makes no sense cause steam got hacked so does everythinv else in this world. Been with playstation and i never had a problem security wise. PlayStation doesnt hold SSN and you dont have to put you credit card on it either. Pc users just wanna cry, its a PlayStation game they should be happy Sony putting games on pc to begin with. Also funny they dont trust Sony but yet would play there games when on pc.
Yes, people have explained the problem with a PSN account...there has been 15 million articles on it and surely you read a few and saw some comments...it is because PSN is not supported in a lot of countries meaning people in those countries can't create a PSN account and therefore would be unable to play the game at all.
Christopher with all I do respect, your bias is showing heavily, be positive, congratulate people and ask for them to do more, no need for this passive aggressive bitterness
He has literally failed articles based on whether or not it will upset Sony fanboys lol. We know where he stands and it's not neutral.
You are the one showing bias. Christopher is 100% right here, all this HDII and PSN linking is a gigantic hypocrisy.
Much need for it, because I know no one is going to turn any of this attention anywhere and it will just die out until the next Internet band wagon pops up. Gamers are proven to have power, they will then squander it rather than utilize it where it matters.
I’d argue there’s a better softer approach they could do, just make it optional with bonus for people who did it like some free cosmetics and make it required only for cross-play and cross-save purposes. That way the people who can do it have bonus incentives and people in countries without psn can still play without problems.
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The difference is EA, Ubisoft, Take2, etc didn't release their games and then down the line implement forced account linkage under the guise of "security". Gamers know from when they buy EA and Ubisoft games that you'll need an account with those companies. Also when was the last time a company delisted an extremely popular game from over 100 countries?
It was listed on the game as a requirement and it was a decision by arrowhead so that people could get into the game. In future companies won't be able to make such decisions and you will simply be left unable to play the game.
Actually, all of them did this by adding their apps to existing games once they released their apps. So, no, they're not any different.
Thank you! I have a PS account, but bought this on PC. I just hate having to do stupid stuff like this just to get into the game I bought.
You should try getting a resident evil MP working not as bad as making a sony account but its right up there i tried with a fake dump email holy spam batman. I never finished the account creation
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 remakes are likely off the table forever, as new claims from anonymous Activision devs bury your hopes for good.
"Tony Hawk himself purported that plans were in place until Vicarious Visions’ obligations to Activision’s mammoth FPS game franchise, Call of Duty, got in the way"
Same what happened to Raven Softworks sadly
We'll never get Singularity 2
The article says it was too ambitious for them to remake 1-4 in a single package for the deadline they had, not that remakes of 3+4 are too ambitious to be made in general. So they cut back to 1+2.
They were going to remake 3+4 later but unfortunately they got diverted to the Call Of Duty mines.
If Microsoft want to prove that they have had any sort of positive influence on Activision whatsoever, I'll be expecting Pro Skater 3+4.
Just let Toys For Bob remake the maps. The mechanics are already perfect.
This is kinda pathetic on Activision. Hire someone else to do a remake if you have to. Not every dev needs to be working on cod
Yeah, on top of that who wants to buy COD every year? Seriously.. any good MP game should easily be good for 2-3 years before needing a sequel if it has enough content or a few updates here and there.
So sad to hear about Slam Bolt Scrappers, especially the layoffs
wish nothing but the best for the team
I kind of hate that the indie scene has gotten so over saturated with people wanting to make a quick buck now, it kind of takes away from the guys who really put in hard work, time and effort trying to create something amazing or trying to be innovative. There is a lot of good that can come from indie devs, but the sad thing is that the mainstream gaming media; the ones who should be paying the most attention, usually aren't.
Retro gaming experiences would be completely dead in my opinion if it wasn't for the indie scene. That whole PSN situation long ago was a pretty bad situation it's unfortunate the team had to get hit with that hopefully the future will be brighter for them.
Definitely want to hear more from you guys in the future! Keep going strong.
I truly hope this team can find financial success with these endeavors.