No doubt, up in Bethesda, Irrational or Infinity Ward, there’s a poor games developer, sleep deprived and emotional, who, reading a scathing review of a game they’ve put weeks of their life into making, has barked those exact words in a furious outburst, tears at the corners of their eyes.
It’s certainly true that many gamers, having played video games “for most of my life”, believe their veteran consumer status gives them the innate ability to judge a video game’s worth, and the right to criticise a developers methodology. Many has been the time that I have been told I’m “wrong” for believing Single Player is wrong, or I’ve had to listen to an uninformed prat hold forth on the subject of Battlefield vs Modern Warfare, and the god-awful subject of “balancing” and weapons being “OP as F*ck”. Now, that’s not to say I don’t enjoy a good game debate, but when it’s an obnoxious pratt who’s only trying to entertain the gamer-girls enthralled by his “passionate” opinions, I feel the urge to vomit. Sure, I’ve opined myself many times, and if I encounter a better founded or more reasonable opinion, I’ve been known to conceded defeat. However, unless asked I generally try to leave the critical reviews to the experts.
Having developed this opinion, I always had a temptation to get stuck in and have a go at making a game, partially to see, completely seriously, “How Hard Can It Be?” So, when coursemate and good friend Dan Lambeth nudged me and asked if I’d be interested in making a game with him, it only took me two seconds before I said “Yes!” Dan and I have a similar taste in games, and it sounded like a great opportunity to “get involved” and explore an industry I’ve always admired, but never really understood.
So began one of the most enjoyable, maddening, trying and fulfilling projects of my academic life thus far. We assembled a team of myself, Dan and mutual friend and coursemate Jonti Rudd. We brainstormed. We argued, and at times fought. And boy, were we unprepared…
pneumatictuna 