2008-09 Friday 19th, Next project announced

[Thomas]

Freedom does not necessarily equals GTA-style free-roaming

[Naked? No]

I think they can do a good job. It's the skill, not how much money they have and how well known they are. And it doesn't matter if they are small.
It just take longer time, I think they can manage to do this..

Heck, even I can make a free roaming game. It just takes alot of time. I actually Beta test a game for a guy, and it's a free roaming pirate game. And he is mostly working alone. So, no. I think Frictional can do this.

I don't think they spend that much money on their games compared to the big guys. If I remember correctly, I heard on a review that Black Plague cost them 'round 800 SEK to make. Correct me if I'm beeing wrong though.

[WindexGlow]

To anyone wondering;
300,000 DKK = $57249.56 (in usa currency)
800 SEK = $119.00 (in usa currency)
http://coinmill.com

While even a single man team can do a lot, the scope is still limited. A 10-man team can do more than 10x the work a single man could do, if communications and leadership is not a problem.

Most big-name games spend roughly 50% of their games cost on advertising, but I think this might just be a rumor, but not surprising if true.

The 800SEK obviously excludes cost of living, and cost of creating the other ingame content. It will be interesting to see if Frictional Games grows it's members drastically, or what they spend the money on.
But please; don't try to be another game. I don't want to wait and find out this game is Doom IIII with HPL references.

[Naked? No]

Yes. But I think it's lame to say they are going to have difficulities with this just because they are small. They got some money from the Penumbra series, no doubt.

Quote:While even a single man team can do a lot, the scope is still limited. A 10-man team can do more than 10x the work a single man could do, if communications and leadership is not a problem.

Not true. It just takes time. Have you ever heard of multi-skilled developers?

Quote:The 800SEK obviously excludes cost of living, and cost of creating the other ingame content. It will be interesting to see if Frictional Games grows it's members drastically, or what they spend the money on.
But please; don't try to be another game. I don't want to wait and find out this game is Doom IIII with HPL references.

Cost of living doesn't count in this matter.
I don't know if it is about in-game content etc. But by creating the engine, which I actually think was free, there is not very much more than ads and game content.
So I guess the in game content was included in the cost.
And advertisement was included. Probably was costing the most.


I wouldn't mind if they try something new.
Think of it this way, ALL thei're games, except Energetic. Is puzzle solving adventures. It's 5 games! I would like to have something different from them!

Best regards - Nackidno

[Lysius]

nackidno Wrote:

Quote:While even a single man team can do a lot, the scope is still limited. A 10-man team can do more than 10x the work a single man could do, if communications and leadership is not a problem.

Not true. It just takes time. Have you ever heard of multi-skilled developers?

But even a multi-skilled developer only has limited time and money. If it takes him five years (or even longer) to develop a game, the techniques used are outdated and If he wants to have a good selling game, he has to start again with a new engine. Then after perhaps four years, when he is done, this engine again is outdated, ...
And in all this jears our multi-skilled developer has no income, or needs an other job that consumes valuable time.
The size of his project is limited through the amount of work he can do before his techniques used gets outdated.

nackidno Wrote:Cost of living doesn't count in this matter.

Living cost is exactly what matters. You have to "buy" your developers (If you do it alone you have your living costs, so you effectively have to buy yourself). They are an essential part of the process, just as important as hardware equipment, software costs or licensing of music, artwork, an engine, etc.

[Naked? No]

Hmm.. I never thought of it that way actually. Thanks for the correction Lysius.

[WindexGlow]

Also, the 'cost of living' is basically their wage, but they enjoy the freedom of 'choosing' how much their wage is, by choosing how much they eat, what they buy, ect. You can't go into a store and pronounce "I'm a game devoloper, everyone!" and expect rolayty.

[Penumbra]

WindexGlow Wrote:You can't go into a store and pronounce "I'm a game devoloper, everyone!" and expect rolayty.

You can't?

[WindexGlow]

Of course not, just VIP access. Royalty is far too expensive for penny-less devolopers.

And Frictional; please allow the game to be more modable. I'm not talking about scripting, I'm talking about being able to change variables that weren't modable in HPL1. (night vision as an example)

[Jeremy-Bailey]

looks good. not sure if I can or will be able to, partially just because I use Linux, and also that I am not getting into games like I use to. In fact, I was through with retail games and wanted to find basic Linux games. which is how I stumbled across the beta version of Penumbra Overture at gamershell.
I will play Requiem though, once it's released for Linux.