Cat badgers Chris Hecker about in-game diversity, the value of aesthetics vs. gameplay, the "indie" label, and why the SpyParty community is so darn nice. You can find Part One of the interview here: http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...
CAT: The character models are getting their own makeovers, too, and I know you’ve spoken about diversity in the past. Can you wax eloquent about that? (very happy about the number of polygons devoted to hair, by the way, nice to see curly locks represented as something other than the “before” of every makeover movie) …and how that diversity affects gameplay?
CHRIS: Diversity is a huge goal of mine for the game. With only 20 characters, we're not going to be able to hit all possible corners of "diversity-space", but we'll do our best to make SpyParty the most diverse game ever, in terms of playable characters. So, for example, the latest five characters we've shown ( http://www.spyparty.com/201... ) have a guy in a wheelchair who will be fully playable. He'll have advantages and disadvantages because he's in a wheelchair relative to other characters, like he's lower to the ground and so harder to spot, but also moves more slowly through crowds. The meta for choosing him will be self-balancing to some extent, if he's harder to see then more people will choose him which will make him more suspicious which will make fewer people choose him. Same with the older characters, and the rest. I'm really happy with how they're coming out so far, but it's a little nerve wracking to know we only have 10 more characters with which to hit a lot of different "diversity axes", including race, gender, age, ability, and body shape.
http://s2.n4g.com/media/11/...
Look at the polygons!
CAT: How important are character models to “a game of subtle behavior”?
CHRIS: Hugely important! I'm going to have to retune the whole damned game when the new art comes in. There is already a situation with the tech demo level with the original 5 characters where the older black gentleman with the cane can basically bug the Ambassador for free on his cane side due to the animation being too subtle. The game is rife with that kind of thing.
CAT: The diversity, is it an opportunity for you to “say something” with game, and how do you think expressing your ethos can serve or detract from gameplay?
CHRIS: It turns out SpyParty is the perfect vehicle for exploring diversity in games, because it's all about different characters interacting in a room. So, in the case of SpyParty, there's no compromise for diversity, there's actually a benefit. Well, except for the animation count, it'd be a lot quicker to develop the game if we didn't do custom animations for every character, but man, it sure does look good!
http://s2.n4g.com/media/11/...
Some of the new character models
CAT: More truth bomb dropping: the game looks pretty, but from the start I’ve always felt like the game, the essence of SpyParty, was there - and awesome. How do you view the role of aesthetics, of visual appeal, in games?
CHRIS: Yeah, it's true, the beta testers playing SpyParty right now with the old art are playing the real game, and so in some sense the new art isn't necessary. But, games are a very mixed media art form, and the image I have in my head of SpyParty is not just a design, but is also a visual and aural aesthetic, and a level of polish, and so the new art really is a first class part of the game I'm making. It's not as important as the design, but it's important. If it turns out I can't make the game I want with the new art for some reason, I'll ship the crappy old art, but I don't think that'll be necessary.
CAT: SpyParty, you get better with each game, but it also gets more complex - you realize what you can improve. I’m thinking of smooth movements, avoiding tells - and you’re going to add dossiers? …and interrogations?
CHRIS: Yep! I originally thought the "dossiers" design (where each character has different behaviors, some like statues, some don't like to read, some drink too much, etc) was too complex, but games like LoL and Dota have shown that players can absorb an insane amount of detail and complexity if it makes the game deeper, and so I'm going to go ahead with it. It was the original idea, and it seems like the natural way for the characters to act, it was just a question of whether players would be able to take on that much "homework", and it's clear to me they can now.
CAT: SpyParty is in open paid beta right now. Do you have a timeline and vision for a final version? Will you know when it’s done?
CHRIS: I'm guessing two years from now, given the rate at which we're getting the new art characters done. It'll be done when we have 20 new art characters, and a good selection of new art levels, and all the menus and whatnot looking good. And spectation. And sound design. And and and...
http://s2.n4g.com/media/11/...
SpyParty, I've always loved you - just the way you are.
CAT: Platforms, which ones?
CHRIS: "yes"
Hopefully everything. PC obviously, both Steam and not. The major consoles. Tablets at some point maybe?
CAT: Ok, I knew the answer to that question. You’ve also talked about wanting interplay between platforms…is this, well…possible?
It all depends on politics at the big companies. I think I'll be able to have everything interoperate with the PC, but whether consoles can play each other, that's totally up to people in giant corporations. There's no technical reason why they couldn't.
CAT: I’ve spoken with a well-known independent developer that was very frank about not wanting to be associated with the word “indie” right now. What does being identified as indie mean for you, and what do you think of the current indie scene?
CHRIS: I still think the word "indie" has meaning, in the sense that we're a small team self-funding a game with no publisher. I don't spend much time worrying about it. I think it's great there are so many indies now, and the range of games coming out is really heartening. There is drama in the "indie scene", like any other "scene", but I'm not really a part of it. It helps that I basically don't use twitter much personally, since that's where a lot of the drama happens. SpyParty tweets ( http://twitter.com/spyparty ), but I don't personally very much.
CAT: When I tell people to play SpyParty, and they don’t, I get angry. I am actually mad at them, I may even think less of them. Recommendations for improving my proselytization and thus sparing approximately half a dozen people (+/-) my wrath?
CHRIS: Well, the art is a big turnoff for people, so I'd wait until we replace the menus and the tutorial map at PAX. Then, I tell people to watch streams if they're on the fence. People stream SpyParty every day, and I even made a twitter bot you can follow ( https://twitter.com/spypart... ) that will pick up new streams even if you don't follow the person, so you can almost always find a stream to watch. In fact, players joining the beta now are way better faster than in the past because of streams, I think. Finally, some people just don't like early-access betas, and that's okay. They can still follow SpyParty development and just pick it up when it's done, assuming they don't mind waiting.
CAT: Can you talk about the SpyParty community? Do you think there are steps that can be taken to keep communities from being toxic, or is it a supernatural phenomenon?
CHRIS: No, I think it's a very natural phenomenon, it just takes time and effort and the right game design. On the time and effort front, I spend a lot of time in the community, playing, watching streams, posting and reading in the private beta forums, and checking out twitter. I set a good example, and I don't tolerate any toxicity. You can see how we deal with sensitive issues in this post ( http://www.spyparty.com/201... ). That said, it's also a small community of very self-selected people, so we'll see how it scales. Also, the game itself helps, because the intimate 1v1 deception/perception gameplay means you want to talk after a game to see what you missed, and the new replays feature helps with this too. That's very different from a symmetric team game where you can take credit for wins but blame your team for losses.
CAT: Thank you, Chris!
Day 9 | Chris Hecker
The Nerd Stash: “The PS3 marked a turning point in the industry, and among the sea of popular titles came the rare games that are worth more now than ever.”
I don’t collect games for their value I collect games I enjoyed playing. Many games I own are worth a lot of money but they must be games I want to play for me to purposely collect them. Most of this list isn’t games I would enjoy. I may have some of these games because I bought my friends PS2/3 Collection years ago and I never actually looked what was in it. It was a couple hundred games though still sitting in a box and I’m sure there are some good valuable games. I should go sift through it sometime.
Ex-Rocksteady directors' Hundred Star is collaborating with Xbox Game Studios Publishing for its first-ever AAA game.
Highly doubt it'll be an actual Batman game that IP belongs to WB Games along with other DC property.
They're making an action adventure game. IMO I think it needs to be another Marvel game despite MS already have Blade as that action Marvel game. Dead Pool? Punisher?
Realistically it'll probably be a new IP entirely.
I agree with you. I think I'll be a brand new IP. Now it could be a superhero themed, kind of like infamous. Speaking of which, Suckerpunch needs to make one after Ghost 2.
I definitely think it'll be super hero themed game 100%. Something MS needs in their portfolio.
Dead Pool or Punisher would be amazing!!!
Don't tease me like that man lol. I see them making a new IP that's like an arkham knight clone
I hope these devs needed support to start/finish (like Stalker 2), vs are basically done with the game but wanted to secure an exclusivity-bonus because they know Xbox needs a system seller (like Titanfall).
It’s a bit strange that they’d rather invest in this game than Tangoworks’ TWO canceled projects; or just trust a single dev from their existing massive stable of talent to emerge with a system-seller themselves anytime soon.
Either way, it is just cool that we’ll likely get a new IP from the geniuses behind the Arkham Trilogy. I wonder how creative they’ll get now that they aren’t married to an established franchise.
This is about the former co-founders of Rocksteady and their new studio. So naturally it makes people think its Batman related with the way its worded, even though its not.
Exclusive? Sure
This year alone Microsoft has changed their plans so much with Xbox regarding multiplatform releases as they step closer to just being a full blown third party publisher and it's only been 4-5 months, imagine where we'll be once this game is finished. It will be a completely different landscape.
I don't think MS will ever go completely full 3rd party with all of their games. I can see them looking towards expanding their own mobile store and moving into Mac as ways of expanding. I'm sure ms will bring more exclusives over to ps and nintendo, but I don't think it'll be as many games as you think it will. I hope I'm wrong.
The ever contradictions thoughts and actions of MS definitely says otherwise MS changed up so much on the past 6 months of the year I lost count.
Though I'm more declined to believe they also won't go full 3rd party also.
But.
This year they're having Renaissance a super bowl of gaming with Gamepass this year. BO6, older ABK games, Avowed, Indy and other 3rd party exclusives all to grow and expand gamepass. If these games don't grow the service or grow only a little bit. Then you can fully expect MS to hit the red button and put everything everywhere. Satya will have full Xbox take over doing what he wants from that point on next year.
It's up to Xbox to advertise these games and gamepass in the next 6 months or so get the word out.
The more the news evolves the more I'm inclined to believe we will see MS embrace full third party status but not call it third party in their word soup ways.
It will be Xbox everywhere plays best on a Xbox.
Next gen Xbox is rumoured to be a reference design similar to the 3d0 where any company can make and sell it.
If you're offloading hardware costs to a third party yet still profiting from the games then you've cut out losses on the hardware you still have a store front that users can use and still make a 30 percent cut on that.
Your games sell for a profit on PS and Nintendo platforms and on Xbox reference hardware along with PC
You lose .kney on DLC and games sold on a competitor storefront they are seemingly already comfortable with this.
The ms bean counters are coming for the ROI that was promised they don't care if they kill the brand as it stands Xbox was never a profitable business it was always just done for reputation
@Lightning the would end the console then. No one would buy Xbox over PS at that point cause now you get both with just a PS. If GP flop for them, Logically, rolling back on GP would be the smarter than to do. No more day 1 title. Less quality titles. They'd lose subs but people would go back to buying the games.
Spawn (as well as master chief) are the only characters I associate with Xbox. Are there more I can’t remember?
Yeh big game, do you know the name of the lead character. Or team of lead characters. I don’t
Also the chick from gears 5 seems to pop up on all their modern advertising I can't remember her name either.
Cars also feature heavily in a Xbox ad it's always master chief front and centre with cars and maybe a gears character hanging around
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 launched last week to solid reviews from both fans and players. But its playercount? That's another story.
That's awful. This combined with the really low Steam numbers paint a disastrous picture imo. Really bad timing too because Tango was closed down for a similar thing. Great reviewed game, and low sales and/or player count. Hi-Fi Rush reviewed a hell of a lot better and it was widely loved by everyone, Hellblade 2 nowhere near that.
I know the rumor is that the studio has their next game already green-lit, but if I worked at Tango, I would be furious. "Why do they survive while we get binned?" I'd be telling myself.
But the suit woman will have you believe "Oh we have different metrics for the success of one studio compared to another studio. We judge each studio and game on their own set criteria" or something like that, I'm paraphrasing here but you get the idea. But no one who works there knows what the hell that even means. I mean the DLC for Redfall was getting worked on days before they even got the news their studio was getting dumped in the trash. So what are these mysterious metrics to let studios survive and others perish? I bet this is all hogwash, I bet MS don't even really know. They just had to make cuts and certain studios just found their way on the chopping block. Someone had to bite the dust, why not you?
Well I bet all this does nothing for the confidence of other employees in other studios. The truth is you have no idea where your career will be in a year from now working at one of their studios that aren't the mega big ones. MS just have too many studios to manage efficiently. "We'll just throw money at them and buy them and worry about the details later on. I mean we can do it, we're Microsoft."
...have you seen what the top 10 consists of? Its things like fortnite, roblox, CoD, apex... etc. This being a new game that has a niche appeal is actually surprising to see at 23. Its also the 33rd top paid game on the PC through the MS store.
Those are dreadful numbers any way you slice it dude. They hyped this game to hell for the last 4 plus yrs. It was supposed to be xboxs big game this yr. Ninja Theory is probably sweating right now.
And it's already slipped out of the Top 100 on Steam. Meanwhile a port of the 4-year old Ghost of Tsushima is sitting comfortably at #8.
One of the biggest games of the year, a multi million sequel and heavily advertised game, at 23 most played? There's no way to justify those numbers.
^^heavily advertised game...?
I mean, I knew the game was coming but outside of a boot screen ad for it, there has been little to no marketing. And yet it still managed 23rd. Make of that what you will.
Here in the East Coast on NY/NJ on cable tv Hellblade 2 has been advertised pretty well. I see the commercials every day at least 3 times a day for the past 3 weeks. It's even advertised as YT commercials.
What an idiotic comment. Let me guess the next comment would be GTA V outsold everything so....
Absolutely terrible numbers all round for this game. Ghost of Tsushima at number 8. Good games going to sell regardless of excuses
What a disaster, 2 failures in a row for Ninja Theory, first Bleeding edge, now Hellblade 2, any way you slice it these are not the numbers the most awaited game of the year for Xbox should show (before Activision purchase), also player numbers is extremely low and even more surprising considering is day 1 on gamepass.
If they worked on heavenly sword instead then they would have something worth playing and waiting for... unfortunately that won't happen.
If this game cost more and took longer to develop than Hi-Fi Rush, then I would worry if I were Ninja Theory. Projects may have been greenlit, but the increased scrutiny over at MS may very well put them on the chopping block. The incredible irony here is that it was PlayStation players that pushed the original game passed its 1 million copies sold milestone. With that purchasing power cut out, and the Game Pass effect having trained Xbox players to not purchase games, it seems that the sequel may have been set-up for failure.
And that's exactly what pisses me off about Hellblade 2 not being on PlayStation, Sony promoted the original game and I bought it basically on D1 back in the day because I liked what I saw and ended up really enjoying it!
I really hope Hellblade 2 is next on the porting list because I would buy it in a heartbeat, asshole microsoft robbed me of this game!
Those hairstyles hahaha!
Nice info, the concept is really cool
"I'm guessing two years from now"
OMG i can't wait !!!!
why can't we have it now !!!!!
Wow, a Twitter bot to follow streams huh? That's a pretty nifty way to help the community discover new playthroughs of the game.