Backseat Driver

3/18/2008 12:00 AM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 4

GameCynic is a game developer. He's using a pseudonym so he can write honestly about games ... and still have a job.

I just finished reading Jeff Green's endnotes in Issue 14 of Games for Windows, where he tries to put together a list of New Year's Resolutions for developers. I know the Greenie's trying to be funny, but telling us that we should "play something else other than our own damn game?" I understand where he's coming from, and that's what this column, Backseat Driver, is about. But he paints a distorted picture of game developers that at best, is deliberately naïve, or at worst, is the product of a critic, never the person who has tried to create something. I don't need to recite the entire Teddy Roosevelt quote, only to say that "it is not the critic who counts." Ha-ha, very funny, we're a bunch of self-absorbed narcissists who aren't in touch with our users. It'd be funny if it were an accurate caricature.

Too bad it's been a banner year or so for quality games.

Game developers are often cuttingly insightful about the flaws and successes of games they play and games they make; the discussions in the studio or among colleagues are miles away in focus and depth from the average review.

Developers are not supposed to be reviewers. How developers look at games is about the art and craft of making games -- and there's a wealth of experience in actually making decisions and seeing the consequences that change the way we tend to look at games. We tend to break down specific mechanics in a game and understand what the designers were trying to do, what feelings or reactions they were trying to elicit from the player.

Ultimately, both groups (should) care about the end-user experience -- an experience quite different from that of a reviewer, who probably hasn't had to pay for a game in years, or the developer, who works in a bubble cut off from public discourse about their design decisions. Most developers never get a chance to talk about games candidly -- steely lip-glossed and starched collar PR staffers see to that. If you're Will or Peter or Warren, you might get special dispensation (and probably, only Will really can do as he likes). Shigeru could, but that sort of maverick behavior is improbable at a Japanese publisher, and Shigeru might as well be Nintendo for many intents and purposes. There have been a few of us that take the leap to deconstruct our games at developer conferences -- sadly, some of them can't seem to do it without essentially forcing their employers to fire them. No one's ever argued that the Wii isn't, more or less, two GameCubes duct-taped together, but the originator of that quote got pummeled for being "anti-innovation" by a naïve press/blogosphere/public that never reported or realized that most of his life was devoted to indie games.

So let's try to add something to the dialogue, I thought. Let's stick to the games, and let's try not to directly bite the hand that feeds us (with or without expletives). One of the gripes of those who work in the industry is that we don't get to play as much as we should -- something the Green Monster does point out in his column. So, in an effort to do just that, I've devoted time every month to Backseat Driver -- a chance to play and talk about games from a developer's perspective, in a way that you might hear in the Fairmont bar, back when GDC was still in San Jose. I'll talk about design decisions made, and why I dis/agree with them; I'll try not to criticize without offering alternate solutions. You might even find me apologizing for what seem to be specific design flaws.