AAA game development can be 'soul-crushing,' says Warren Spector

Of coarse an elderly man will find the amount spent on AAA games soul crushing, back in his day you could buy a brand new house and car for $1,000. Get with the times or retire already, you haven't done anything for gaming in 10+ years.

Oh please, I got a lot of my female friends into gaming because of Triple A games. Showing how visuals, storytelling and character development have progressed so much that most Hollywood films are shit in comparison.

He should get involved with the next Deus Ex, whenever that happens.

Wow! Even an industry vet as passionate as him thinks AAA games are soul-crushing. That is ... demoralizing.

We don't care if they're having fun as long as we are.

DEAL WITH IT!!!!

Your Epic Mickey games stink, Mister.

Epic Mickey shouldve required always online connection.

Definitely gotta feel for guys like him, Chris Avellone, Ken Levine, and others. These guys are genuinely passionate about gaming, just like we are, and get to make games for a living. How awesome is that? But with these big-budget titles, you've got the publisher breathing down your neck to get the game out by a certain date, regardless of whether it's at the point you want it to be; and then it's got to "appeal" to the widest range of people possible, thus potentially diluting your vision of what you want the game to be; and then there's even cases where you're told "No, you can't do that," or "We want you to put such-and-such in there." And then you take all the heat if the game was crappy, even if it was because you were overworked and your original vision of the game was completely neutered by the publisher. I'm glad to see some of these guys getting away from the big-budget model and having success on Kickstarter, and I hope the community doesn't become as overbearing as the publishers have.

So it's another episode of "No Shit Masterpeiece Theatre" then?

they are alot crappier then they should be too.

Well, the other versions bombed, so it makes sense.

I'll buy it on pc when it is sub $20, so I can play it with the 4gb patch, and mod the hell out of the graphics on top.

I'm sorry Warren, but you lost me at Deus Ex Invisible War.

Unified ammo pool? seriously?

does that mean big publishers are soul eaters? That would explain EA.

And then everyone looks to the coming reign of indie games - and then they become big industry over time - and then everyone looks to the coming reign of really indie games - and then they become big industry over time - and then..............

Sometimes I think the problem is our idea of money in general and making it.

Yeah, in my day the "one guy in his bedroom" or "a few mates make a game" model was king. Then it went onto a team of guys (or gals, sorry) having fun creating their idea. Now it definitely is a case of too many cooks. It must be very hard to have a vision and actually create it when there's sooo many people involved in it. It's not impossible, it just needs co-ordination and planning. If it bothers him, he should get into mobile gaming before that too becomes huge budget only.

It's too bad how no one can make games for fun or passion anymore these days without big corporate CEOs and shareholders breathing down your neck to make a game that sells millions of copies. Sounds like the music industry, they still don't get it either.

Or, how about just make less boring and generic FPS games, and make more RPG;s, Action, etc... This generation sucks for RPG games, SNES/PS1 days wee infinitely better. RPG games are my favorite. Instead of boring and generic online, give us a much better single player experiences.

I have a lot of respect for Warren Spector and sure many gamers out there. And I hope he gets on Kickstarter.

"Working at a job is really hard and not as fun as I want it to be" said EVERYONE EVER

Another reason Indie games will take over, once the tools and technology continue to improve.

Head to kickstarter, I'll back anything you WANT to make. I'm sure there are plenty of other Deus Ex fanboys like myself that feel the same. You dropped one of the greatest games ever made on us, that came way before its time, and imo you deserve better than what has happened since then.

Agreed. Same goes for filmmaking. The more people and $$, the more soul crushing it is. You can either have an impressive, big budget project on which everyone is miserable or you can have a less impressive, low budget project on which everyone is exciting and has a lot of fun. I have yet to experience anything different. Sad fact of the entertainment industry.

#dealwithit...

"AAA game development can be 'soul-crushing'"

So can working with Disney.

Yeah, I mean, they make millions of dollars and make games for a huge audience of players, but it's just not fun so feel sorry for them.

Well Warren Spector, your're mindset is not all mindsets.

People think different..

Actually this is true for every major projects.

You have to meet the majority expectations in different domains (which also means sales), you have to deal with proportional risponsabilities and requests in due times.

And yes to achieve that, you often have to see a product before a game and if you put too much emotional energy in it you'll just end up frustrated.

Who cares how much fun a game is to MAKE? I only care how much fun a game is to PLAY.

Also, I am sorry Mr. Avalanche, but options and competition in the marketplace is a good thing. No, nobody plays 40 fps games per year, but I would rather have people attempting to stand out in a crowded market and come up with innovation and ideas to do so rather than having 1-3 FPS's come out every year and be guaranteed sales to genre fans and not need to do anything to innovate.