cliffbo
01-21-2008, 08:53 PM
Jon Hare: "Quality of programming has gone down"
Monday 21-Jan-2008 4:12 PM British developers "undermined" in an "Americanised" games industry
8 Comments
Jon Hare, the man responsible for Sensible Soccer and the Sensible Software range, says that the "quality of programming has gone down" in the present world of big corporation developers and publishers that differs massively to gaming's earlier years.
He points towards us Brits having a different sense of humour as a key cause for the decline in influence UK studios have nowadays.
"Something that is not often talked about is just how Americanised the industry became when the big media companies came in," he said.
"The American approach is seen as good business, but in a lot of cases the American side of things just don't understand our humour.
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"Even if you look at Grand Theft Auto which is probably the most successful British developed product in recent times it's still very Americanised," explained Hare.
And it's the expansion into big business and safe sequels that Hare finds difficult, he explains. "What's been hard for me as a designer and team leader is how difficult it is to get people to trust you. Not just publishers either, but often people within your own team," admits Hare.
"I honestly believe that the quality of programming has gone down. People like [Sensible stalwarts] Chris Yates, Chris Chapman and Julian Jameson - they virtually did the big games on their own," recalls Hare, reminiscing of the age when the comparatively basic games were made by small teams of people.
You couldn't possibly have ten-man teams working on games of today's complexity, but that's part of the problem, Hare says. "It was a different environment back then because the hardware was more stable. You didn't need loads of people running the graphics, programs just ran at 60 frames per second - so the onus was on the creative and not about fighting with the display.
"You had a smaller team and that meant you started to get some of the subtle little things done that made such a difference to the final game."
WiiWare and Xbox Live, he concludes, are "the best chance we have of seeing new and original games coming out," in his interview with MSN Tech & Gadgets.
He makes it seems all a bit grim, but before you go and do something you'll regret, replenish your excitement by watching sweet videos of one British-developed, new and highly original game we all should be looking forward to.
Ah, all better now.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=180045
not biased then lol
Monday 21-Jan-2008 4:12 PM British developers "undermined" in an "Americanised" games industry
8 Comments
Jon Hare, the man responsible for Sensible Soccer and the Sensible Software range, says that the "quality of programming has gone down" in the present world of big corporation developers and publishers that differs massively to gaming's earlier years.
He points towards us Brits having a different sense of humour as a key cause for the decline in influence UK studios have nowadays.
"Something that is not often talked about is just how Americanised the industry became when the big media companies came in," he said.
"The American approach is seen as good business, but in a lot of cases the American side of things just don't understand our humour.
Advertisement:
"Even if you look at Grand Theft Auto which is probably the most successful British developed product in recent times it's still very Americanised," explained Hare.
And it's the expansion into big business and safe sequels that Hare finds difficult, he explains. "What's been hard for me as a designer and team leader is how difficult it is to get people to trust you. Not just publishers either, but often people within your own team," admits Hare.
"I honestly believe that the quality of programming has gone down. People like [Sensible stalwarts] Chris Yates, Chris Chapman and Julian Jameson - they virtually did the big games on their own," recalls Hare, reminiscing of the age when the comparatively basic games were made by small teams of people.
You couldn't possibly have ten-man teams working on games of today's complexity, but that's part of the problem, Hare says. "It was a different environment back then because the hardware was more stable. You didn't need loads of people running the graphics, programs just ran at 60 frames per second - so the onus was on the creative and not about fighting with the display.
"You had a smaller team and that meant you started to get some of the subtle little things done that made such a difference to the final game."
WiiWare and Xbox Live, he concludes, are "the best chance we have of seeing new and original games coming out," in his interview with MSN Tech & Gadgets.
He makes it seems all a bit grim, but before you go and do something you'll regret, replenish your excitement by watching sweet videos of one British-developed, new and highly original game we all should be looking forward to.
Ah, all better now.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=180045
not biased then lol