 |
|
|
| |
Splash Damage: PC-Only Development Was 'Incompatible' With Triple-A Strategy
by Kris Graft [PC, Console/PC]
|
|
| |
|
October 28, 2009
|
| |
UK-based Splash Damage got its start as a modding house founded by hardcore PC gamers who made games for hardcore PC gamers.
The studio is responsible for the popular 2001 mod Quake 3 Fortress, and has since developed Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and the 2008 online shooter, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, among other releases.
But while Splash Damage has its roots in hardcore PC gaming, the studio has had to adapt to a market that is highly-focused on console gaming. "About two or three years ago we realized that we really wouldn’t survive if we only made PC games, since purely making PC games was incompatible with our goal of making triple-A games," said Splash Damage head Paul Wedgwood in a VG247 report from the EG Expo in Leeds.
Wedgwood said that landing a publishing deal with high-budget goodies like orchestras and top-tier voice acting is difficult when creating a game only for PC, "where there [aren't] the sales to justify that kind of work."
Today, apparently much for the sake of business, Wedgwood has let go of his "hardcore PC guy" tendencies and expanded his vision to embrace consoles, which he says he plays much more often these days.
Brink is a stylized class-based shooter unveiled earlier this year for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. Splash Damage hired numerous talents from the console gaming world, including key people from Killzone 2 and Fable II.
Brink won't be the first time a Splash Damage game appears on consoles. Quake Wars is also on Xbox 360 and PS3, although those versions were developed by outside developers. Splash Damage handled the PC version.
Wedgwood's sentiments echo those of Splash Damage senior game designer Ed Stern, who told Gamasutra at E3 in June, "We didn't want to just cater to [PC gamers]. I mean, we love them, we were a mod team before we were ever developers. We love them and want to keep on supporting them the best we can. But in the last five or ten years, there's just millions more people who are now gamers."
|
| |
|
|
I do care about consolization in PC gaming. As long as you don't rape the game as Infinity Ward has done with MW2, I don't care that you release console versions. The more the merrier.
BUT DON'T DARE YOU WRECK MY PC GAMING!!!
The PC market doesn't produce the kind of sales that would support that kind of budget. That's all he's saying.
People who are snobs about whether or not PCs run games better or control them better are obviously just full of hot air, but there are actual problems with the way PC games are developed nowadays.
The hard question is whether the technical constraints of consoles force most games to be simplified compared to the depth they could have had as PC-focused games.
At that point, that *does* constitute "leaving the PC market behind" because it's no longer supplying the kind of product desired by the people who prefer to game using PCs.
I totally agree. If games are dumbed down on consoles, it's because game developers are thinking that there is a need to try to make more casual oriented games, but it's a big misconception of the moment... at least the last few years.
I'm with others that dumbing-down or "consolization" isn't delusional, and you even go on to point out that out later in your whine/rant when you contradict your previous comments with this; "is that certain types of games are better suited for the PC and vice versa."
That's exactly the problem, most PC derived games are not suited for a console and it's primarily because of their limited input. When a developer chooses to focus on a much slower input like a gamepad, which for the the most part is all-thumbs, there are compromises that must be made to a game that was originally designed for a M+K combo, which from a PC stand point usually means a slower and dumber AI, a gimped UI that behaves differently than practically every PC game prior, along with points made by others.
At least with a PC, one can generally choose the input that's best suited for the type of game, where as on a console, it's generally only one choice. But with most developers treating the PC version as a port, we've ended up with games that have tacked on mouse support -- this creates noticeable lag, or even worse the UI doesn't even support it -- or very little support for any input outside of a 360-controller or a mouse. This is a slap in the face, when PC games in the past supported most available inputs.
++++++++++++++++++++
Anyways, good luck to Splash Damage, as focusing on AAA titles seems to have been incompatible with staying in business these past few years.
Rainbow Six series demanded mouse because you had to draw the waypoints of your characters on a planning stage... The first version that was native to console (and not a port), removed that... And changed the game genre totally (now it is a "normal shooter" while before you could even not even shoot, just watch the planned action).
Lost Planet on PC: Seriously, each robot has a diffrent control scheme, and the control schemes were presented to me with a F****ING STUPID PHOTO OF A 360 CONTROLLER!!! And I hate the 360 controller (I use a PS2 controller with USB on my PC \o/ And every time that I lose one I buy another PS2 one)
NFS series after underground (including): You travel the UI with... Z? X? Seriously, who use Z and X and backspace instead of Enter and ESC?
Assassins Creed for PC: Huh... the four actions are shaped like four gamepad buttons... But there are no similar shape on a keyboard (only "close" shapes). At least this one is not that problematic (it does not hamper gameplay, it only shows that the game was not for PC at first place).
GTA series for console: awfull to aim, even with the "auto-aim" button that sometimes make your character aim everywhere but where you really want (and in GTA San Andreas and Vice City results in your character shooting madly upward when you managed to aim behind you).
DMC 4 for PC: No marketing, I never heard of the game before capcom complained of piracy... (and I never played it too, dunno how the gameplay is).
Mass Effect for PC: Bizarre UI control scheme, the game is stupidly unbalanced (I killed the final boss with the pistol while playing engineer... in the first try... not losing even half of my HP... and I am a pretty bad FPS player, I am always the last place in Unreal Tournament, Quake or CS...)
Commander and Conquer for N64... This caused a trauma on me... how the gameplay is bad there... I made me think so bad of the series that I only returned to CC in Generals (in a borrowed copy... that some people would say that it is piracy...) and found that actually is a good series.
Pro Evolution Soccer on PC: well, I only see people playing that with PS2 controllers, seemly the game is awfull to be played on keyboard.
Sonic R for PC: Another game that you advanced and returned menus using "Z, A, F and other arbitrary keys"
And the list happily goes on...
I am not saying that is impossible to make a game that work both on PC and console (well, but the aiming that is awfull on console, GTA series is pretty cool on console for example). But companies need to understand that the two are separate markets, and separate platforms...
I still feel that console manufactuers are trying to trash PC, specially MS with their stupid "GFWL", DX updates that only create graphic demanding stuff that are not really better (seriously, if DX10 was that awesome, why half of Vista users still game on Steam using DX9, and Vista is a minority?), and they deprecated DirectInput (so some games force me to use a XBOX 360 controller... that I don't even own, so new games does not support my PS2 controller :( )
long live PC and its developers! (btw: I asked Romero if PC was dieing, and his awnser was: "Are you mad? Hell no!" and I agree with him \o/)
I must resist the urge to fire-up steam and play TF2 or Audiosurf, or R6 3 or Trackmania, or Osmos, or AI War, and return coding my PC platformer game...
The good or even the well hyped PC games do well. Good games sell, broken games stop selling once people find out they have issues. The other thing is a single console game that makes as much money as mmo or free to play games? Zynga much make stagger amounts of money and Blizzard's wow make staggering amounts of money, especially in light that the game is five years old!
That being said, I see a pendulum swinging. Consoles will become more and more sophisticated and this gradual process will create more sophisticated games and gamers.
All of these PC arguments belie the fact that this is a business. And business will do what they do best, make money by providing a product to the largest audience possible.
"Where there is no solution, there is no problem".