Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Still on IP fueled game design

Here is a quote from the book 21st Century Game Design, by Chris Bateman and Richard Boom:

"The obvious candidates for such originality (from a publisher's perspective) are licensed games, ironically the traditional reserve of the most conservative of designs. Because these games already have a certain expectation of audience from the appeal of the license itself, they are great opportunities to pursue originality. However, this is only the case when the license materials suggest a new form of gameplay."

That's pretty much the point I was trying to make (just written previously and better)

The Godfather would have been a right choice, then. Batman, not so much.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This made me think of another licence which is currently being made- Scarface. From what I've seen it looks like- yes, another GTA. Something different they could do with this is to use the main character's increasing paranoia as a gameplay device. With the way you view the world changing to reflect your mental state. So you're not sure if what you're seeing, hearing and experiencing is real or the product of your head. If anyone has played the Milkman Conspiracy level of Psychonauts you will get some idea of how this unsettling feeling of paranoia can be achieved.

Chico Queiroz said...

Maybe I'm wrong, but if think there is a controversial game around where the mental state of your character changes depending on his use of drugs... Similar effects could be used to depict feelings of paranoia etc.

Hum... how about a Taxi Driver game? (So we can increase this Robert De Niro / Al Pacino monopoly going on)

Chris said...

You're much too hard on yourself, Chico; your point was perfectly well expressed. I find it fascinating that you reached a similar conclusion via independent reasoning. It lends some small credence to what would otherwise have been a random idea. :)

Chico Queiroz said...

True. Of course, it could be just the same random idea striking again :)

Copyright, Chico Queiroz