Posts by Furyo

  • Almost 12% of US Games Biz Laid Off

    Quote from e-freak

    although games are being developed in english in germany as well, and as e.g. crytek shows you can easily migrate people from all around the globe.

    It's the one case where it works, it's little known particularly in a country where it's exactly the opposite (you're expected to have perfectly fluent English to work in the US) and besides all that, people still face real life in a foreign nation and language when they're not working. Not many can surpass these fears, and Europeans due to geographical reasons are much more prone to being exposed to this early on, therefore to accepting these challenges.

  • Almost 12% of US Games Biz Laid Off

    You guys are forgetting the most important aspect of it all, which is the cultural aspect. Americans for the vast majority speak only English, and even in the rare occurrence they do speak enough Spanish to get by, that opens very small job markets for them. Same for French, German etc etc.

    Basically they'd be moving to the UK to get a job, where the situation isn't all that great right now with the weak pound.

    Once the country as a whole embraces foreign cultures and languages and make those mandatory in school, maybe you'll see a change but for the time being the American Way of Life and American Dream is way too present, and the rest of the world still trying to make it there only reinforces that opinion.

  • Zero Gear - an indie multiplayer kart racing game

    Definitely. Even a demo that's too long will be enough to hurt your sales if people have enough fun with what little they have. If you're planning on a demo, I would limit its use in time, because you won't have a choice but to include a full working map and some goodies, which means your full priced version will only give more of the same. People will continue playing the demo if the only thing they get is more maps and models. You need to have more gameplay types and added incentive. Take Left 4 Dead as the working case.

  • EU Proposal Would Pressure Devs To Make 'Near-Perfect' Game

    The only thing I see in that is an added incentive for developers and publishers to maintain quality support for their titles months and years down the road, instead of shoveling crap down the consumer's throat releasing a title at full price one day, reducing it 50% 3 weeks later and pushing it off the shelves two months later to make room for their latest software.

    Only good things from a consumer standpoint, and aside from the extra cost on the publisher's side, also good things for us developers as a whole. You guys need to realize that while this is a proposition, it'll be amended by tons of nice footprints regarding the extent of that support warranty, like "Can only be applied if consumer's hardware does not exceed release day required specs, etc etc etc"

  • Zero Gear - an indie multiplayer kart racing game

    10 bucks/euros/whatever is the current day market sweet spot I think. PvZ wouldn't be doing that well if it sold over that (it actually is 20 bucks on popcap.com) and this is I think what people are ready to pay for a game they haven't heard about except for raging reviews and a free demo. You'll still come out with that fresh coat of paint on your studio and game, and it would take just a little quirk to crush your game at first, so don't put all your eggs in the same basket and be overconfident.

    As far as micro-payment, no it doesn't work well outside of Korea/China/Japan where they have vastly different gaming tastes than what we're accustomed to. I know large publishers are trying to find a way to make it work for themselves, but do yourself a favor, don't believe for a second you can succeed where they haven't yet.

  • Duke Nukem Developer 3D Realms Shuts Down (??)

    On the subject of non compete contracts, us low level devs would never have to sign one (besides it can easily be judged as unfair by many courts, even after signing it) but it is fair and you would have to sign one if you're among the top dogs of any company. In these positions, you're given access to extremely sensitive information that can totally destroy the next few years of the company if they were to come out.

    Signing one usually means you're heavily compensated for it though. Example of one such contract was for Martin Tremblay, former CEO of Ubisoft Montreal, who was forced not to open his own dev studio right after leaving Ubisoft.

  • Almost 12% of US Games Biz Laid Off

    Shareholders need to be pleased. When they demand 20% ROI year over year, and your titles sell less than anticipated, you either cut your losses (employees) right away, or you go all in the following year and try and catch back the loss. The publishers in the first category are known to everyone, and they're the ones that were also funding third party independent studios who eventually shut down. The second category is made of publishers who are still riding the wave with cash cows (CoD, Guitar Hero) or those who had enough cash reserves to sustain that hit and bet big on the year to come (Ubisoft)

  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Teaser

    My only question regarding this game is if it can top the 12 million copies the first MW game sold. We all know it will rock and we all know 5 million copies sold would be a disappointment. Kinda like AC2, and undoubtedly this year's two most anticipated/media darling titles.

  • Ratio of artists to programmers

    They're artists. They'll typically be used as team leaders/graphics production assistant managers and get a little more than regular artists, but nothing of the scale of programmers.

    With that said, I know programmers that are getting paid less than designers. I'm talking people with the same experience. Hell I even know certain producers that came in with a lesser wage than 3-4 years experienced designers....

  • Ratio of artists to programmers

    Rationale for programmers getting better wages is they studied longer and could easily make a lot more money working in finance or other fields so you need to give them some incentive. Incidentally artists and designers don't have that luxury.