Who Develops the Developers?: An Interview With Meggan Scavio, Part 2

3/23/2009 9:07 PM | 0 Comments | Page 2 of 3

Scavio: I think it's coming back! Wait until you see some of the stuff in the IGF competition. Have you played any of it yet?

Crispy Gamer: I haven't. What're they like?

Scavio: They're like paintings! They're beautiful games. I think that debate will re-ignite, based on the stuff I've been seeing.

Crispy Gamer: Do you feel like that debate's even worth having any more?

Scavio: Well, you're generally preaching to the choir at some point.

Crispy Gamer: Yeah, but I understand the argument of people who want their games to be disposable, pop entertainment, too.

Scavio: I can be the same way. I read disposable books. It's still someone's sweat that went into this book, but it's not exactly going to win a Pulitzer. It's all relative.

Crispy Gamer: Let's talk about who's not disposable. GDC will have its usual share of big-name designers showing up. Do you feel like the show's a victory lap for some of them? Like, say you're Peter Molyneux. How do you stay excited about game development? And I want you to answer this question in a British accent.

Scavio: [Laughs] Peter Molyneux's an interesting subject; he likes to use GDC as a sort of launch pad for his ideas. A couple of years ago, he announced the dog in Fable II. I was visiting at Lionhead when they were working on that aspect of the game, and he was so excited about sharing that with the audience. He's still excited about development and he comes to GDC to share that excitement.

Crispy Gamer: Who else do you feel feeds off that excitement?

Scavio: Someone like Suda51, who is probably the most Western-style game developer in Japan. He comes to GDC every year, and this year he's sitting on a panel. He's not pitching any projects or anything like that. We offered him his own panel/lecture and he wanted to do something with a group instead. In a way, he's the perfect GDC presenter. It's someone who's slightly outside the box, and who's being creative and inventive, and can share that knowledge with the audience.

Crispy Gamer: What's the opposite of that?

Scavio: Well, not to name any names, we don't have talks at GDC about the franchises that roll off the assembly lines every year. Innovation's a premium at GDC.

Crispy Gamer: With regard to the innovation, I'll be going to a roundtable later this week where some of the higher-ups in the ESA will be soliciting feedback and suggestions for making E3 better. What would you say to them?

Scavio: I enjoyed E3. I was sad to see it go, and there were side effects at GDC when E3 was going away [from its old, shiny, noisy self]. We got a lot of attention we didn't want. Where Microsoft would've made announcements at E3, they were doing it here. We also had an inundation of press who really didn't understand GDC. They thought it was going to be like E3 and were, like, "Why can't we play games?"