The old days of gaming

[kainemaxwell]

Do you miss the old days of gaming when game developers were a dozen or more or less of people working on the coding, music, and spirites of games, or do you prefer now with hundreds of people working on all aspects of a game in big mulri-dollar ventures?

[digitalpress]

I chose "a little bit of both".

David Crane could never have done the sprawling "Grand Theft Auto Vice City" or even scored the rich musical soundtrack to a graphically stunning game like "Halo" all by himself, but then again since development became a team thing we'll never see a simple game with the charm of Crane's "Fishing Derby" either.

[congobongo]

I think smaller companies are more likely to break rules and push boundries by taking chances. So many of the developers these days seem to shoot for "safe" hits that leave little room for innovation.

EDIT: DP has a point

[Alex Kidd]

I don't really care eother way... good games were made in the past, good games are made now... it's not the number of minds working on it, but the quality of them.

However I must admit, I often feel admiration reading the credits at the end of an old Sega Genesis or Master System Game and realizaing that so few people did so much...

But what is up with the old SMS and Genny credits...
I mean... I've seen times were it'll say
Music: Zuf
Sprites: Dool
Something Else: Etu Atu
Another Thing: Alzabtz

I've seen time where they credit someone (or something) that has about 6 consinents and 1 vowel... you can't even pronounce it!!!

Not to offend any culture or their languages or names, but ARE these really names of people... and why are there often only one name... I assume that ALL cultures have a first and last name system...

And last but not least, was it a typo in the ending credits to Altered beast for the Genesis where it says "Special Thanks to Team Sinobi"... whould that say team sHinobi? or was there another team with a similar name...

Alex Kidd

[YoshiM]

I also chose a little bit of both. Not everyone is a great artist, coder, or musician. However I agree that a smaller company without top management brass kneeling on them are more likely to develop something fresh and new (or to be safe, a new twist or three to an existing genre). When it comes to games, I definitely believe the phrase "too many cooks spoil the meal".

[bargora]

Multidollar?

[Six Switch]

I agree with DP,good point.I will have to go with a little bit of both.

[kainemaxwell]

Congo, you could say Rockstar took a big chance on the GTA series and look at their status now.

And I'll agree with DP here- the big companies can churn out new francises and new titles (even the cookie cutter clones) but many of the games today lack the simple charms of the games of old.

[ghsqb]

I too agree with a little of both.

The big guys have resources to throw at a project, the smaller guys tend to innovate.

The thing that really bothers me today about the big guys is the willingness to go out and dazzle you with stunning graphics and sound but completely ignore gameplay.

That is what is trully charming about the older games, they couldn't dazzle you with graphics and sound (although you could argue that things like the intellivoice were revolutionary for its time), but instead had to produce a good, fun game.

Thats not to say there werent awful games back in the day, or that there arent good ones now, it just seems that sometimes priorities are skewered a little.

And to echo congobongo, so many big guys prefer to leech off of their franchises (Street Fighter xxxv anyone?)

So if it seems like I'm sitting on the fence.....I am!

:P

[congobongo]

Kaine23, like I said, I agree with DP and I change my answer to a little of both. I guess I just feel that with the volume of titles that are being released at this point, few of them seem innovative. What really gets me into a game is 1.) a simple and original concept and 2.) progressively challenging levels

I would say a good example of this is Super Monkey Ball. IMO there are way too many FPS/3rdPS and not enough Monkey Balls! :monkey:

Don't get me wrong, I like the odd FPS/3rdPS but there is just WAY too many of them right now.

[NvrMore]

I'll actually disagree with DP (partially at least)

I can't quite make up my mind on this point because it's really just a part of a much larger, and arguably more difficult, question about the state of gaming in general.

Personally, I haven't had enough time to observe the full effect of the large-development groups taking over. The impact of such a change hasn't been fully realised quite yet, although given another 5 years or so I don't think I'll be able to say the same thing.

With respect to the modern home console systems it's true that the large dev groups are the only option for developing games and I agree with DP's point that games so complex as those we see on the modern platforms simply couldn't be achieved otherwise. However I tend to disagree with the sentiment that all game development has fallen to the large dev groups and that we can't/won't see the innovation and simplicity of a game made by a small team, because such games are still being produced, all be it in the only place where they can be, for the handheld market, most notably the three generations of Gameboy.

The GameBoy is generally the last system remaining with a development library and scope similar to that of the older systems on which smaller teams could feasibly create a game without a six figure budget. I frequently see obscure titles available for the system which have been created by some obscure little dev team made up of no more than a handfull of people, but the games just don't get the publicity that the bigger titles do and as such tend to get looked over.

Imo, at the moment it's really just a case of looking at the current home console libraries versus the hand-held library to see the differences between large and small team efforts, which tends to highlight the most obvious sacrifice of wide variety and innovation (small team / scale) for increased complexity and size (large team / scale). That's not to say that larger developments never try to innovate or actually create something new (rather than just making slightly remixed clones) but I have noticed that as developments have grown larger, this trade of has too become greater and I can't help but wonder when the sacrifice will finally come to outweigh the gain.

[punkoffgirl]

Multidollar? You mean, where they get paid as high as TWO bucks?

[maxlords]

I as well picked a little bit of both. I'm a big fan of good epic RPGs, and the modern RPG isn't doable by a small team....imagine Xenosaga being done by only 20 people! Not gonna happen. On the other hand, I love a good unique game...stuff like Super :monkey: Ball and Treasure games that have smaller teams (although I don't know how small Smilebit is, considering how prolific they've been lately). So a combination is really the best IMO.

[kainemaxwell]

Congo, just call me Kaine please..everyone else does.

And ghsqb comment is true about many titles nowadays- all glitter and no substince inside, so to speak.